


Welcome to Camp

by louisa_pennyfeather21



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson), F/F, I haven't decided yet!, M/M, Maybe Bill/darcy, who knows?!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:42:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 23,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23989807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/louisa_pennyfeather21/pseuds/louisa_pennyfeather21
Summary: The Jacobs siblings have always had a somewhat normal life. Everything is going great until the end of David and Sarah's sophomore year of high school.
Relationships: Albert DaSilva/Finch (Newsies), Bill Hearst/Darcy Reid, David Jacobs/Jack Kelly, Jack Kelly & Katherine Plumber Pulitzer, Kid Blink/Mush Meyers, Romeo/Specs (Newsies), Sarah Jacobs/Katherine Plumber Pulitzer, Spot Conlon/Racetrack Higgins
Comments: 17
Kudos: 61





	1. Meet the Jacobs Family/ The Letter

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone, this is my first post on here! I've also posted this on Tumblr! It's not perfect and there are some spelling and grammar errors, s I'll warn you ahead of time.

"World War I, also known as the War to End All Wars. Who was it fought between?" Miss. Larkin leaned against her desk and scanned her classroom carefully. A few students raised their hands and she was surprised when one of her most motivated students didn't raise his hand.

"Was it the Allies and Axis powers?"

"Close, try the Allies and Central powers. Can anyone tell me what started the war?" The hands in the room that had been up in the air quickly disappeared. Miss. Larkin shook her head and focused on the oddly quiet sophomore in the front row. "David? Can you answer the question?"

David Jacobs jumped in his seat, earning a few snickers from around the classroom. He quickly covered his piece of notebook paper and looked up to his teacher with wide eyes. He hadn't been paying attention and his cheeks burned with embarrassment.

"I, um, what was the, uh, question?" David stumbled over his words, earning more snickers. Miss. Larkin sighed, but she wasn't annoyed with David. Her annoyance was more aimed at the rest of her students.

"What was the cause of World War I?" Miss. Larkin smiled encouragingly at David. All the poor kid could do was mentally kick himself. He knew all of this and yet he still sat in his seat like an idiot.

"The, um, assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand." Miss. Larkin smiled reassuringly at David and moved on with her questions.

"Now, what came as a result of World War I?" Hands shot up in the room again, but Miss. Larkin had her eyes on one of her more… distracted students. "Sarah?"

"What, yes?" Sarah perked up in her seat and grinned at Miss. Larkin. Unlike her brother, she had been multitasking between semi-listening and scribbling on her notebook paper. Unfortunately she had been in the middle of drawing the wings of an airplane and she hadn't been paying much attention.

"You both need to pay more attention during class." Miss. Larkin chastised the twins, although she couldn't stay mad at them because she can understand how distracted they are. An idea formulates in her head and she tries not to seem too excited. "I'll need to speak to both of you after class. Now, what were some results of World War I?"

David and Sarah both exchange wary looks. David was internally freaking out. He had never been asked to stay after class, ever. He was always so good about paying attention and doing what he was told. Sarah wasn't too worried, although she didn't feel right about the meeting. She was also worried since it was the last class of the day and they had to pick up their younger brother and Mush at the front doors of the shared middle school and high school.

Class dragged on for the twins. David made sure to diligently pay attention, although he occasionally got distracted. Sarah half tried and focused back on her drawings. Her kind drifted to maybe grabbing ice cream on the way home with David, Mush, and Les. After all, there were only a few days left of school before summer break. Why not celebrate another year?

Finally the bell rang. Most students bolted out of the room in a hurry to get to end of season practices or hang out in the warm weather of Manhattan. Sarah tried her best to sneak out, only to be stopped by her goody two shoes of a twin brother.

"You know I'm older, right?" She huffed but stood and waited for Miss. Larkin to, most likely, scold them. Sarah was used to the whole disappointed lecture, but it was the end of the school year! Sarah had made it this far.

"What's been keeping you both so distracted during class?" Miss. Larkin asks, keeping a relaxed posture. She really wasn't mad at the twins, but she knew she had to talk to them and soon.

"Well ma'am, I tend to have a very overactive imagination and my little brother here just blanks out sometimes." Sarah grins. She expects Miss. Larkin to call her out for the sass, but she's surprised when all the teacher does it laugh.

"What she means, Miss, is that we both have ADHD. We must've forgotten to take our medications or something." Sarah huffs at her brother and rolls her eyes. She hated the pills. They always made her tired and she got in trouble countless times for falling asleep in class. Plus, she couldn't think straight with them. 

"I just wanted to check on the two of you. I know the end of the school year is an exciting time, but we still have to focus on our work." Miss. Larkin reaches over her desk and grabs an envelope addressed to the parents of the twins. Inside was a letter Miss. Larkin had been holding onto for the entire school year just for their parents. "I also have this. It's for your parents, so don't go reading it."

"What's inside?" Sarah tried to snatch it as Miss. Larkin handed the letter to David, only receiving a glare from her brother.

"Nothing harmful, don't worry about it. Just an end of year letter." Sarah narrows her eyes at Miss. Larkin, but she doesn't get to interrogate the teacher before getting shooed out of the classroom. "Now, run along now. Can't leave those little brothers of yours waiting."

"Thank you, Miss. Larkin!" David is indescribably relieved to just have a letter and not something like a phone call home. Or worse: detention.

"Let me see the letter!" Sarah lunges for the white envelope, but David holds it high above his head. Although they're twins, David is taller by at least half a foot. Sarah tried jumping on David's back only to be shoved off.

"No, you'll just.open it and read the letter. You heard Miss. Medda, the letter is for our folks." Sarah groans and drags her feet down the empty hallway. David just rolls his eyes and shoves the envelope in his pocket as they approach their younger brother and Mush leaning against the wall beside the front doors.

"Finally, I could've graduated by now!" David playfully pushes Les and the four walk out of the school. Mush keeps quiet, as per usual, but he does playfully shoves Sarah out of fun. Some students still stand in front of the school, others wait by the sidewalk for the buses or their parents. The siblings begin the short walk to their apartment.

"David, my beloved brother, might we grab some ice cream on our walk-"

"No." Sarah groans and sends a pleading look to Les, although the seventh grader is too focused on his fidget spinner. Curse the school counselors for trying to get him to focus more. She looks to Mush, but he just shrugs.

"David, come on!" Sarah pleads as they pass the ice cream parlor. "It's almost the end of the school year! Let's reward ourselves for making it through another year! Another long, dreadful year…"

"Sarah." David glances anxiously down to Les. They try their best to hide their financial situation from their younger brother, although Sarah often forgets because of her childish nature. It nearly drives David insane for his sixteen years old sister to act like she's still a small child. Mush is more mature than she is and he's a freshman.

"Fine, but you owe me a cookie." Sarah points at David and turns to walk inside their apartment building. The trio walk towards the elevator and wait for the elevator to stop at their floor. David leads the way out of the elevator, but he gets only a few steps before running right into someone else.

"Woah woah, watch the face!" A higher voice exclaims, a mischievous smile following from the lanky blond. 

"I'm so sorry." David apologizes and tries to move around the boy. He does get very far before the boy is in front of him and his siblings again.

"Well hello hello, ain't you a sight for sore eyes." The boy's accent is heavy, heavier than any of the Jacobs. David cautiously glances to his sister, knowing the boy must be talking to her.

"Um, not interested." Sarah grips her backpack strap and makes an awkward face.

"Sweetheart, please. You's pretty, but definitely more of my friend Katherine's type." Sarah's jaw drops, mostly in shock. She doesn't exactly mind the comment, but it definitely wasn't expected. He turns back to David and winks. "Besides, I was talkin' to this one."

"Um, I, uh." The kid breaks out laughing and moves past the trio. Sarah snorts quietly at how uncomfortable David is. Both twins turn, thankful for Les's obliviousness to the situation.

"C'mon, this is boring." Les and Mush walk off towards the apartment, leaving the twins with the stranger.

"Relax, buddy. You ain't my type." The boy stops by the elevator and presses the down arrow. David frowns, not really sure how he should take the comment. "So, you two got names?"

"Why should we tell you-"

"Sure, I'm Sarah, this is my younger twin David, and those two walking off are Mush and Les." Sarah points, satisfied when David stares at her with wide eyes. That's what he gets for denying her ice cream.

"Pleasure meetin' you, I'm Race." The elevator dings and Race steps through, but he leans back out before the doors can shut. "I'll see you guys around, gotta feelin' we'll be seein' a lot more of each other."

Sarah waves, planting a faux smile in her face until the elevator door shuts. It does automatically and she frowns. 

"Sarah! You can't just dish out our names like that!" David exclaims. She doesn't seem to get that people have been kidnapped by just handing out their names, or worse.

"Oh please, it's not like I told him our social security numbers." David stops and points at Sarah with concern in his expression. "Relax, I haven't met any shady people lately. Besides, we have bigger issues to discuss. For example, who's this Katherine he spoke of?"

"I can't deal with this." David turns on his heel and walks towards their apartment. Sarah stands still for a second before following.

"Seriously, this could be my shot! I'm attractive, right?" Sarah pouts as David opens the door and both walk in.

"Sarah, I'm not answering that question." David slips his shoes off and drops his backpack in his room before walking further into the apartment.

"You two are so slow." Les calls from the couch in the living room. Mush is sitting next to him with a book in hand.

"David? Sarah?" David hurries into the kitchen and smiles at his mom. She turns to him, a warm grin on her face. "Hey, how was school today?"

"It was good, yeah, great for one of the last days. A lot of kids weren't at school since we finished exams early." David starts working around the kitchen to help get ready for dinner. As he grabbed some plates to set on the table, he remembered the envelope he had shoved in his back pocket. "Uh, one of my teachers gave this to us today. For you and Dad."

"What'd Sarah do this time?" It's not secret in the Jacobs Household that Sarah has been in trouble more than once. She's hardly done anything to warrant anything further than a lunch detention, but she's had her fair share of letters.

"It's not about Sarah. Miss. Larkin gave us a letter. She said it was something about it being an end of year letter." David doesn't miss the look of recognition on his mother's face as she carefully grabs the letter. He watches her stare at it before smiling at David.

"Why don't you go see if Les needs help with homework. Make sure Sarah isn't terrorizing the neighbors on the fire escape." David hesitantly leaves, casting a curious glance back to his mother. Nonetheless, he walks into the living room only to find the window by the fire escape wide open.

"Sarah!"

The Letter

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs,

I have been watching your children for the past school year and it has come to my attention that they aren't quite ready for the world they are a part of. I know you both are aware of their origins and you both know they must prepare to be in a world that will not treat them kindly.

I praise your ability to keep Sarah, David, Mush, and Les safe their whole lives, but there have been many close calls during the school year. Luckily, we were able to avoid any confrontations. I fear the older the children get, the more dangers will come your way.

I strongly recommend allowing them to attend camp as I have spoken with you about it many times. It will only be for a summer and will prepare them for the rest of their lives. Don't worry about these last few days of school, all four children have perfect attendance records.

Please consider allowing the children to attend camp. For your safety and there's. You know the address.

Sincerely,  
Medda Larkin


	2. The Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Life is simple for the Jacobs siblings until one sit down at dinner. How will they handle it?

"Kids, dinner's ready!" Les was the first into the kitchen and in his seat, Mush right behind him. If anything got both of them excited, it was food. Sarah followed, a frown set on her face and David following right behind her.

"I don't get why it's such a big deal! All I did was say hello!" Sarah throws herself into her seat next to Mush, crossing her arms and huffing. David takes his seat beside her, rolling his eyes.

"You tapped the window and screamed at the kid when he came to the window. That's not exactly a hello." Sarah's shenanigans with the kids in the next apartment over has caused a multitude of problems. Thankfully the kids are older and they resort to some very rude hand gestures.

"People are just too soft! Someone's gotta toughen the kid up!" Sarah huffs. Her and David launch into another's brief argument right as their father walks into the kitchen with a pizza box in hand. Les immediately shoots out of his seat, ecstatic for the change up of dinner. David, Mush, and Sarah all share a confused look, wondering what the event could possibly be to render their father buying pizza.

"What's all this?" David asks his parents. They both share a brief look and David immediately tenses. It's the same look his mother gave the letter earlier and he can't help but wonder what was written on the letter. Especially if it rendered something like this.

"Just a little end of school year celebration." David can see right through his father's lie, but he doesn't say anything. Instead he bows his head and starts a quiet conversation with Sarah.  
"I think this has something to do with Miss. Larkin's letter." Sarah bites her bottom lip in thought. 

"Do you know what it said?" David shakes his head at his sister's question. Before they can talk anymore, their parents and Les sit down at the table. They all finish the pizza quickly and laugh when Sarah's pepperoni tower topples over into her lap.

"So, there's something you father and I want to discuss with you four." The entire table tenses for multiple reasons. Mush tenses because he's still not used to Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs practically calling him their son, despite living with them for all his life. David and Sarah tense because they both know this has to do with the letter. Their parents look to each other nervously, both knowing this is something they have to do.  
"Since summer's starting, we want to do something for you four. There's a summer camp on the North shore of Long Island. It's for the entire summer, but we've been thinking about this for a really long time and we think it's finally time." The room is dead quiet once their mother finishes talking. The tension is so thick, you can practically see it. Sarah and David stare at their parents with wide eyes, both wondering how the heck they could afford a summer camp for all four children to attend. Mush is thinking the same, although he's excited at the idea of going to camp. 

"Really? That's so cool!" Les is grinning ear to ear. "When do we leave?"

"We're going to drop you off tomorrow." Les doesn't waste another second before bolting out of the room, claiming he wants to pack. Mush hesitantly follows, not wanting to be a part of the tense conversation ahead for the older Jacobs siblings.

"What are you… I mean, why… how?" David breathes the words, not being able to fork a proper sentence.

"David, you have to trust us. It's just for the summer and you'll all be just fine." His mother reaches across the table and grabs both his and Sarah's hands. She's assuming they're both just nervous to be away from home for an entire summer.

"No, mom, that's not it. How could we afford this? An entire summer? That's not exactly cheap." Sarah shakes her head and anxiously chews on her bottom lip. Her and David made it clear that they want to be a part of the financial trouble in the family, so discussing this with their parents is nothing out of the ordinary.

"Sarah, listen, it's all taken care of. You two should go pack some belongings and get ready. Tomorrow's going to be an exciting day." Their father smiles reassuringly. Neither twin is reassured, they only start panicking.

"How is that even possible? Did we get a grant or something because this is not possible!" David stands and starts pacing in the kitchen, his hands in his dark hair. His parents watch him cautiously. He always stressed over the small details and it worried them. He shouldn't be worrying about the same issues as his parents.

"David, honey." His mother gently holds his shoulders and keeps him still. She cups his cheek and tries to calm the teen. "Just trust us, alright? We know what we're doing. Don't worry about anything, this is something you all need. A summer to just be kids again."

"But what about you guys, we can't just leave you here alone." Sarah slowly stands from her seat, unshed tears in her eyes. As worried as she is for how exactly they are able to afford a summer camp, although she's sure they can't, she's also worried about leaving her parents here. Alone. Their dad's leg has been messed up for years and he can hardly walk sometimes.

"Don't worry about us, we're doing this for you. Besides, it'd be good for you kids to get some fresh air, maybe a tan. David here looks like Count Dracula is tanner than him." David scoffs and the others in the room laugh, relieving some of the tension. Sarah wipes her eyes and quietly leaves the room, hurrying to her shared room with David to pack what she'll need.

"What about school? We still have the rest of this week left." David's intelligence never ceases to amaze the Jacobs family, although it can become quite annoying at times.

"Don't worry about it. For now, just be a kid. Now go get packed, we're leaving tomorrow morning." David's mother reaches up and kisses his forehead before sending him off. Hundreds of thoughts run through his head as he enters his shared room with his sister. She has a small suitcase sitting in her bed with a few pairs of clothes inside. Sarah stands with some small trinkets in her hands, small things she has collected over the years.

"This feels wrong. There's no way they just camp up with this kind of money." Sarah sighs. David walks into the room and pulls his small suitcase from under his bed. He sets it on his mattress and starts grabbing clothes from his dresser.

"I know, but I don't think we can change their minds." David folds his clothes and grabs an extra pair of shoes he keeps for emergencies. 

"Maybe they're right. What's a summer away from home? Might be good for us." Sarah finishes packing summer clothing and shoes along with some personal possessions before she sits on her mattress and sighs. "Besides, dad's right. You always look sick from how pale you are."

"Shut up." Both launch into quiet laughter and start talking about what camp they could be going to. What it's like and what they'll do. In the next room over, Mush and Les are in similar talks. Well, mostly Les is talking and Mush is listening.

"This is so cool, I bet this will be totally awesome!" Les messily throws clothes onto Mush's bottom bunk. Mush takes the clothes and folds them or pushes them aside to make room for clothes Les will actually need.  
"Yeah, it'll be cool." Les bounces over to the bunk bed with his arms flooding with wildly colored clothes. The kid always had an outrageous fashion sense, always wanting brightly colored clothes that made him stick out.

"I hope we get to swim, I haven't been swimming in ages!" Les digs around in a plastic container under the bunk bed, searching for his spare shoes. Mush just chuckles quietly and starts packing his clothes in his suitcase. Mush always gets along easily with Les. The kid can talk for hours on end, but Mush doesn't care. He likes hearing about all the crazy ideas Les has, although some are absolutely mad.

Out in the kitchen, there's a heavy weight looming over the parents of the Jacobs Household. For sixteen years, they have protected their children from the world. For years they have spent every penny to hide from the true dangers of their world. They knew this day would come, but neither could shake the feeling of it being too soon. David and Sarah's father has protected his children since he first found them on his doorstep sixteen years ago. Les' mother has kept him safe for thirteen years and kept Mush safe for fourteen after his birth mother died.

Both were lucky to have found each other and fallen in love enough to accept each other's child as their own. They all grew as a family, hardly recognizing the true stories of their pasts. Now they have to face the true stories of their future.

They can only hope it'll end happily, but you never know in a world crawling with monsters.


	3. Welcome to Camp

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Getting dropped off at camp is not exactly a difficult task. It's just summer camp. Nothing unusual about that, right?

"Come on David, let's get a move on!" David rushes to finish his check list for the sixth time in the past five minutes. He was paranoid that he had forgotten something, anything. He had summer clothes, extra clothes, extra shoes, a notebook and pen, a first aid kit, an in detail list of all the police and fire stations in New York…

"David! Come on, you slowpoke!" Sarah snaps David out of his list checking. She stands in the doorway of their room, her hands stuff in the pockets of her denim vest she had gotten for her birthday last year. "Dude, it's just summer camp, not college."

"Trust me, if you think this is bad, college will be much worse." Les pokes his head around Sarah with mock worry on his face. Sarah ruffles his hair and reaches in the room to grab David's arm. 

"No more checking, it's boring and I'm impatient." David hardly has time to grab his suitcase before being dragged out of the apartment. The whole family stands in the hallway outside their apartment, ready to leave. All six walk towards the elevator and press the down button. They quickly file into the elevator and ride to the main floor of the apartment building. The four children are surprised to see two kids standing out in front of their apartment building with suitcases in hand.

"Wait, are you guys not taking us?" David asks his parents. Both tense and take deep breaths.

"We had planned on it, but this is a better option. Besides, my leg's been bothering me. It's better this way." Sarah and David both stop before exiting the building with Mush and Les.

"Guys, we can stay if you need us. We can't just leave you-"

"No no! It's alright, you kids go have fun. Be kids for a while, learn new things." Their mother waves them off and pushes them towards the door. The four walk out and wait by the sidewalk outside the building.

"I'm going to miss you guys." Sarah rushes towards their parents and squeezes them in a huge huge. Three more bodies join in a large group hug, all six reveling in the feeling of being together. They're quickly pulled apart by the honking of a horn.

When they broke apart, they were met with the two other kids loading their suitcases into the back of a van. What was concerning about the van was the "Delphi Strawberry Service" logo on the doors. And to make it even more concerning, a very familiar face steps out of the passenger seat of the van.

"Miss. Larkin?!" Sarah exclaims. Out of all people she expected to see climb out of a strawberry delivery van- though it's not many- Miss. Larkin was not one of them.

"What're you doing here?" David jumps in with a thoughtful frown on his face. He's just as confused as Sarah.

"Why, I'm here to escort you lovely children to Camp." Miss. Larkin grins. David decides that it makes sense. Miss. Larkin did give them the letter, but why are they taking a strawberry delivery van? Miss. Larkin must notice the confused looks aimed at the van because she quickly answers the unspoken questions. "The camp is popular for our strawberry fields. Now hurry up, we got a full day ahead of us!"

"We love you all. Have fun at camp." The Jacobs all fall back into a quick hug, David hesitating to let go of his parents and leave for the van, but with a pull from Les he's in the van. The four file in and buckle up, closing the door behind them. David watches as the van pulls on to the busy street and their parents disappear from his view.

"You guys are new." The four teens while around to face the two kids in the back seat of the van. They're obviously twins, and despite how bored their first few words were, there's an almost terrifying mischievous aura around them. David can't help but match it to the way the kid from yesterday- Race- has acted.

"You guys been to camp before?" Sarah asks, resting her chin on the back of the seat. The two boys share a look before laughing. It's not like a snicker, more like they're laughing at an inside joke.

"Oh yeah, multiple times. We try to stay year round, but our folks don't like it so we come home after summer." One of the twins exaggerates and throws his head back against his seat.

"What's camp like?" Les asks, a wild look in his eye. 

"Well, it's-"

"Mike and Ike, you two keep your mouths shut back there. These four still have orientation!" Miss. Larkin calls from the front seat. The twins- Mike and Ike- both huff, but shut their mouths.

"Sorry guys, gotta do what Medda says 'round here." One of the twins shrugs jokingly while the other starts fiddling with something that looks like a paper football.

"Medda?" David asks, speaking for the first time. He watches the twin with the paper football as he sets in on the back of one of the seats and aims it towards the front of the van.

"Yeah, Medda. She runs the camp." The twin without the football watches his brother, biting his lip in anticipation. Suddenly, the football goes flying towards the front of the van and it swerves.

"Mike!" Medda snaps, whipping around in her seat. Both twins sit back, feigning innocence.

"I didn't do nothing, Miss. Medda. Just playing a game!" The twin that can only be Mike seems genuine with the sincere look on his face and the apologies in his eyes.

"Do you want to get stuck in stable duty on your first day back?" This makes both twins tense up and shake their heads. "Good, now behave for ten more minutes."

"Stable? You guys have horses?" Sarah asks, but David tunes her out as he looks at the driver of the van. He watches the driver closely, his eyes straining like he's trying to see through fog. For the rest of the ride he watches the driver and he swears something moves on the driver's neck.

"Alright kiddos, here's our stop." Everyone files out into a sense forest. There's a large hill close by with a huge pine tree at the top nearby. As everyone grabs their luggage and the doors if the van shut, the driver suddenly runs around to Miss. Larkin. Before any words can be exchanged, there's a horrible screeching sound from the trees and hissing from the surrounding undergrowth.

"Seriously? We haven't even made it to camp yet!" Ike whines and starts taking slow steps backwards towards the large hill.

"Well what did you expect? Six of us in a van was bound to attract something!" Mike started backing up with his brother. The three Jacobs and Mush all shared worried looks as the screeching and hissing got louder.

"Alright, we need to run." The worry and twinge of fear in Miss. Larkin's voice set the family on edge. She started ushering them towards the hill where Mike and Ike had started running over. All four teens hesitantly let themselves be pushed by Miss. Larkin, trying to see where the noises were coming from.

"What's going on?"

"It's probably just some birds or something?"

"Seriously, why are you so worried?"

But just as Sarah asks the question, something out if a horror movie slithers from the bushes. It's long and snake-like, but what's so terrifying about it are the rams horns on its skull. Sarah gawks in fear as it hiss at them, its eyes slited.

"Cerastes! We have to move!" Miss. Larkin shoves the kids towards the hill and they all willingly start the climb with Mush pulling Les behind him. David glances back to see the driver of their van still behind.

"Hey, you have to run!" David stops, not wanting to let the driver get attacked by that… thing. He keeps yelling, but he's ignored. Before he can do anything, the snake launches at the driver.

"No!" Sarah tried to run back to help him, but she stops dead in her tracks as the driver easily tosses the creature aside and more slither form the forest. But what shocks her more is the driver himself.  
Because he's covered in eyes, all blinking.

"What the holy-" 

"Sarah!" She's distracted by Les' desperate plea of her name, but as she turns to her younger brother, she's suddenly slammed to the ground. She has just a second before she feels sharp claws digging into her shoulders and pressing her further into the side of the hill. Her eyes widen as the creature on her lets out a hideous screech.  
She can't help but scream when she sees a large, bird like creature holding her down. Feathers fly around her and she starts desperately trying to get away only to feel the claws dig deeper into her shoulders.  
"Sarah!" The other three all call her name, but it's Mush to run after her as David and Les stare with wide, fearful eyes. Before he can get any closer, more of the snake-like creatures and feathered monsters appear. But they aren't the only new arrivals.

"Pickin' on new kids? Didn't think you bird brains stopped so low." A deeper voice rings right before the creature is thrown off of Sarah and into a tree. Mush hurries to help her up, throwing her arm over his shoulder and hauling her back up the hill.

"We gotta move!" A hand grabs David's arm and hauls him up the hill. He stumbles, but follows the person dragging him. He notices a familiar head of blond hair through blurry vision, but he doesn't think much of it before running up the hill with his suitcase in hand, surprisingly.

"Les!" Sarah's voice makes David stop at the top of the hill. He whips around to see her and Mush just a few feet away, but Les is somehow further down. He must've fallen because he's now on his back with one of the snake creatures slithering closer. He also notices the few kids rushing towards the monsters.

There's a girl with brown hair braided down her back, but what's terrifying is the large sword she holds. There's a shorter boy running after the monsters with nothing but his fists, although he's doing alright since he's taking the monsters down easily. There's a boy who appears every so often to grab monsters before disappearing and reappearing again. But what shocks David the most is the brunette boy who's levitating on the air.

The boy drops down and suddenly the snake creature after Les is thrown away. David gawks because the boy never even touched the creature. He quickly turns to Les and winks before Les is thrown up the hill. David panics until Les lands softly on the grass of the hill.

"What the heck is- OH MY GOSH!" Sarah screams as a large shadow descends on the monsters, the kids who had been fighting them quickly retreating up the hill. A large dragon now hissing at the monsters and fire fills the air and ground. The snake creatures all slither off if their don't catch fire, the bird monsters the same.

David stands with wide eyes by the line tree, Mush keeping Sarah upright next to him and Les sitting silently on the ground. Miss. Larkin stands nearby breathing heavily as the kids who had been fighting run up the hill.

"They new?" The girl with the braid down her back asks and wipes her forehead. The Jacobs family just stares in shock, no one knowing what the holy hell just happened.

"Unfortunately." Miss. Larkin can't help but feel bad for the kids. They didn't even get inside the camp before the chaos started. But after sixteen years of avoiding this world, something was bound to happen.

"Hell of a welcoming." The boy who had been flying smirks and scans the group. He frowns when his eyes land in David and he quickly looks away. David doesn't care for it though because he has far worse problems to deal with.

"Jack, watch your language!" Miss. Larkin scolds him. 

"Sorry Miss. Medda." The kid- Jack- backs off. Everyone flinches when there's more screeching heard deep in the woods.

"You two grab the luggage from the van, but be quick. I have to get these kids settled." Jack and the girl with the braid run down the hill to the van, which is surprisingly still in-tact. The other two boys walk past the family of four, promoting them to turn around.

All four are shocked by the sight before them.

A huge valley stretches all the way to the coastline. There are buildings littering the valley all the way to a huge woods and some strawberry fields. People run around in the valley, some loud laughter and joyful screams reaching the hill. 

"Well kids." All four turn to Miss. Larkin with wide eyes, Les having finally stood up next to David.

"Welcome to Camp Half-blood."


	4. The Sign/ Dionysus and Hebe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The siblings have ade it to camp. Who's to say shock can't make the day interesting?

"What the holy hell." Sarah stares wide eyed at the screen where a black and orange symbol of a pegasus sits. The Jacobs siblings has just finished watching the orientation video, all four now sitting in silent shock.

"So we are at a camp for children of the Greek Gods… and we're children of the gods… and we're here so we don't die… from monsters." David mutters through most of the sentence, his eyes wide. Although the three boys remain quiet, Sarah isn't having it.

"What kind of sick drugs are you people on?" Sarah exclaims. Les reaches over and gently smacks her arm since David seems to be too lost in his own world to notice anything. "No, what kind of joke is this? Because it's not funny, it's actually terrifying! I have the weird claws marks on my shoulders to prove it!"

"This isn't a joke, Sarah. Everything you've been through in the past hour is all real. The monsters, the video, it's all true." Miss. Larkin talks in a calm voice in an attempt to calm the children. 

"Look, I don't know what the heck is going on right now, but-" Sarah stops talking when a bright purple light shines through the room followed by a yellow light. She turns to Les and Mush to see two symbols floating above the two. One is a golden staff with a pinecone surrounded in purple above Les and the other is a golden circle surrounded by arrows above Mush. She bolts off the couch, grabbing David in the process and pulling him across the room. "What the heck is that?!"

"That's my ego of a brother not liking the spotlight taken from him." A man in a Hawaiian shirt and cargo shorts walks into the room with a can in his hand, diet Coke from the looks of it.   
"When did you get a chance to-"

"Been thirteen years, Medda. Besides, Zeus is somewhat merciful." The man rolls his eyes and takes a deep breath. "Welcome to camp, I'm Mr. D, better known as Dionysus but you won't call me that. Now can you please vacate the area? It's starting to smell like teenagers in my one safe haven."

"Come on, children, let's get you settled in. Hopefully you two get claimed before the end of the day." Miss. Larkin sends a disapproving look towards Mr. D before directing the four teenagers out of the room. It isn't until they reach the front porch that, for the second time today, Sarah breaks the silence.

"Alright, what was that? I'm gonna let the whole 'your parents aren't actually your parents' thing slide for now because I want to know why my brothers were just glowing!" Sarah's voice echos through the camp, capturing the attention of a few familiar faces. The girl with braids from earlier and Jack slowly move towards the porch, cautious of the four teens.

"As you saw in the video, that was claiming. When a god or goddess has a child, they have until that child is thirteen to claim them. I'm assuming that since you've all been kept so well hidden from this world that that's the reason why you haven't been claimed yet.

"You're crazy. Now I'm going to take my brothers and we're going to go home to our parents and enjoy our summer." Sarah grabs Les and David, Mush closely following until an annoying, gray light shines down from above David. Sarah jerks away from him, holding Les close to her as a gray owl holding a branch appears above David's head. "Really? You too?!"

"Hey, I can't control it! I don't even know what it is!" David moves around, trying to get away from the shape above him. After half a minute, the owl is gone.

"Well, now we know the parents of the boys. My question now is why you didn't get the same symbol as David here." Miss. Larkin stares at Sarah with confused eyes. In all her time running the camp, she had never had an instance where a set of twins came with different godly parents. It's impossible.

"What do those symbols even mean? Are they just some crazy cult signs or what?!" Sarah starts pacing and waving her hands around dramatically. She hardly notices the eyes that turn to her as she hurries around in circles in front of the large, white house the four had just walked out of.

"They tell you who your godly parent is. David's a son of Athena, Les is a son is Dionysus, and Mush is a son of Apollo." Sarah's jaw drops open and she stares at Miss. Larkin, her new bluntness unusual and uncharacteristic. Miss. Larkin sighs in exasperation before walking closer to Sarah. "Sarah, you can't leave. It's not safe for you to leave when you can't defend yourself. Just stay, trust me. We just want to help you."

"We wouldn't even need your help if-" Sarah groans when a orange-red light shines around her and she can tell there's another stupid sign, although it's above her this time. She hesitantly looks up to see an orange challace above her. "You've got to be kidding."

"You're a daughter of Hebe." Sarah turns to face the girl from earlier, the one with the braid down her back. She breaks eye contact with Sarah and turns to Miss. Larkin. "Jack and I can show them around camp, Medda. It's no trouble."

"Are you sure? You both know there's a Capture the Flag game tomorrow, I thought you'd be training." Miss. Larkin looks over to Jack only to find him frowning at David. He looks confused and concerned, but she doesn't give much thought to it.

"We'll be alright, we're ready." The girl smiles reassuringly. Miss. Larkin thinks for a second and nods her head.

"I'll have Romeo and Specs drop their luggage by their cabins. And be patient." Miss. Larkin glances cautiously to Sarah and David since the twins are reacting worse than Les and Mush. The girl nods and turns back to the siblings. Miss. Larkin turns back to the white house and disappears.

"Hey." Four sets of eyes focus on the girl, all four ranging from curious to downright annoyed. "I'm Katherine, I'll be showing you around."

"Now why are you showing them around? This ain't even your camp!" Jack jokingly shoves Katherine's arm, making the girl roll her eyes with a smile. Jack turns to the four and grins. "I'm Jack and I'll be showing you around."

"Alright, how about this. I'll show two and you show two?" Katherine and Jack launch into an odd stare off, creating an awkward tension. Sarah frowns a bit when she notices how obvious it is that the two are together, although she isn't too sure why.

"Alright, you two are with me. Jack, you get the other two." Katherine points to Sarah and Les. She walks up to them and plants her hands on her hips. "Alright, let's get to it."

"Try not to scare them too much, Kath!" The said girl throws a glare over her shoulder at Jack as she leads a semi-shocked Sarah and Les towards the pegasi stables. Jack turns to the other two boys, frowning a bit at the taller one. "You ain't a ghost, are you?"

"Excuse me?" David breaks from his shocked silence for the first time, although it's still evident in his eyes when he frowns at Jack.

"Please, I think I know a ghost when I see one." Jack turns to the other boy who just seems confused. Jack assumes it because he's talking to a ghost that the other boy can't see. "Sorry, my mom's Hecate meaning I can see ghosts and there's one right here."

"That's David." Jack freezes and his jaw drops a bit when he looks back to the boy he had assumed was a ghost. He heard Miss. Medda, the quiet boy is a son of Apollo, which means he shouldn't be able to see ghosts.

"Oh, my bad. You're just really pale and you look really lost." David humorlessly laughs, running a hand down his face anxiously.

"Well after all the craziness today, can you blame me?" Jack awkwardly laughs and glances nervously to Mush, but the teen just frowns at the ground. Jack quickly claps his hands together and sighs. "Alright then, I guess we should get this tour started. Follow me."

On the other side of camp, Katherine has to hold Les back from running and jumping in the Lake.

"I'd wait until you have a spare set of clothes before doing that." Les pouts for a second before running ahead of Katherine towards a large pavilion. She turns to Sarah, trying to ease the tension. "Is he always this excited?"

"It flares up when he doesn't know how to react." Katherine rubs the back of her neck, trying to relax the tense teen next to her. "So I'm guessing you have questions."

"You don't even know." Sarah scoffs and starts walking after her brother. Katherine follows, pursuing her lips. It's true, she never questioned this life since she grew up with it. If it wasn't for her older half sister, she would have had a lot more questions. She was lucky.

"I don't, but I can bet I can answer a lot of them." Katherine winces slightly at the cold look Sarah sends her way. She only looks away long enough to make sure Les hasn't run off again.

"Alright then. How come my parents lied about all of this for sixteen years? Why they were willing to tell all of us that we aren't actually blood related except for David and me, but they weren't willing to tell us the whole story? Can you answer that?" Sarah walks closer with her chin raised and her eyes narrowed. Katherine's mouth forms an 'o' as she tries to think of any way to answer the questions, but she can't. She's never had to deal with questions like this before because usually the family life for demigods isn't so easy. Sarah shakes her head and backs away from Katherine. "That's what I thought."  
Katherine and Sarah walk towards Les as he hurries off towards the cabins. Katherine is grateful when she sees the cabins, thankful to get a break from Sarah. She's not a horrible girl, but the craziness of the day she's had when it's hardly lunch time can bring out a different side to people. The two catch up to Les and Katherine directs him to the last of the main cabins. She prepares herself for whoever answers the door to the Dionysus cabin, although it can only be one other person. She knocks on the door and before she can drop her hand, the door flies open.

"What do you want Katherine?" Oscar Delancey leans against the doorframe of the cabin, an annoyed look on his face. Katherine wonders how bad it would be if she just snuck Les into her shared cabin with JoJo over leaving him with Oscar.

"Oscar, this is Les. He's Mr. D's son." Oscar's eyes move to Les and he raises an unimpressed eyebrow before looking back at Katherine.

"You're kidding, right?" Oscar scoffs, straightening up to cross his arms over his chest and seem taller than he actually is. He's hardly taller than Katherine, so she's not intimidated.

"Do you want to deal with Mr. D coming down here to have another talk about being nice? Or would you rather deal with Medda again?" Oscar rolls his eyes, but he visibly tenses up. No matter how big you think you are or how high up the spectrum your godly parent is, no one disrespects Miss. Medda or does a thing to get on her bad side.. Oscar's already walking a tightrope, he's lucky he hasn't got stuck on bathroom duties yet.

"Whatever, you can settle him in. I'm going to lunch." Oscar shoves past Sarah and Katherine, receiving glares. Katherine huffs and turns to look at Les with a kind smile.

"Don't worry about Oscar, you just have to ignore the ego and stubbornness." Katherine leads Les and Sarah inside the cabin. It's a decent size, but what's confusing is how clean it is. There's only one bed that's messy out of the many bunks in the cabin. Les plops down on a bottom bunk near the door, a good distance from the singular messy bunk in the cabin. "This will be where you stay during camp. You can usually go to your counselor for anything, but since that's Oscar, just come find me."

"Where do you stay?" Les asks from his bunk.

"I'm in the Roman Demigods cabin since there's not a Greek cabin for my mother. Plus, there are some gods that the Romans have that the Greeks didn't so my brother and I stay there." Katherine looks around the Dionysus cabin one last time, secretly applauding Oscar for keeping it from falling apart, before she nods towards the door. "Come on, I'll show you on our way over to your sister's cabin."

"We can't stay together?" Sarah asks. Katherine let's the two siblings walk out before shutting the door to the cabin. Sarah gets her answer by the way Katherine purses her lips. Instead of falling back into a brood, Sarah decides she needs to actually ask questions if she wants answers. She does, however, let her curiosity get the better of her. "You said you stay in the Roman Demigod cabin. What does that mean exactly?"

"It's like in the orientation video. Like mythology, there are Greek and Roman gods so there's a Greek and a Roman Demigod camp. Unlike most of the Romans, I like it better over here. By half brother does too, but I think he just has a crush on one of the other campers. All of my friends are here and I spent most of my life at Camp Jupiter, so I decided it'd be nice to switch it up." Katherine leaves out how she doesn't fit in much at Camp Jupiter. Her older, half sister did so much better at camp because she was able to secure a position as praetor. Plus, Katherine has already been through so much at Camp Half-blood that has changed her life. She can't just leave.

"What's the deal with that? You can't just decide which type you are, right?" Sarah momentarily forgets the insanity of the situation and let's her curiosity lead her. There's something about Katherine that Sarah can't place, but she admires it. Likes it, even.

"It just depends on which version of your godly parent that your human parent sees. My dad saw the Roman version of my mom, although I'm not sure how exactly they see whichever form." Katherine never really understood how her mother could even begin to like someone like her father, but she didn't let it bother her. Her father is out of the picture, at least until he sends another letter requesting to meet with Katherine.

"Wouldn't that mess with the… gods?" Sarah struggles to get the sentence our, remembering just how messed up the morning has been. "I mean, it'd be like editing two computer tabs. If you edit one, the other one will glitch because the changes are fighting with the existing document."

"Right, but I'm honestly over it. I don't think there's a single child of Enyo out there, only Bellona. That's my mom. I think she's better recognized in her Roman form, so she can get away with not getting a headache when my brother and I stay here at camp." Katherine walks on the wood porch of the Hebe Cabin and knocks on the door. She turns to Sarah briefly while waiting for someone to answer the door. It just depends on who's still in the cabin, although it is late in the day. "This meeting should be better, Henry is really nice."

"I'm touched, Katherine." The door is open and a boy with a half grin leans against the doorframe, completely relaxed. "You ain't here to compliment all day, are you? Cause I don't think that's exactly proper camp behavior."

"Sarah, this is Henry. He's the head counselor of Hebe's cabin." Katherine rolls her eyes at Henry's joke. Sarah awkwardly waves while pursing her lips.

"Well, what're you all doing here? Is it time for cabin checks already? I've been cleaning all morning, but you and I both know how it is." Henry shakes his head with a mock look of concern on his face before he's smiling again.

"No, actually, Sarah here is the newest member of Hebe's cabin." Katherine plants a hand on Sarah's shoulder, earning an odd look for the shorter girl. Henry nods his head at Sarah and sticks his hand out.

"Well it's a pleasure meeting you, Sarah. I'll get you a bunk and then show you to the dining pavilion. It's almost time for lunch." Sarah takes a shaky breath and turns to Katherin with wide eyes.

"What about Les? You aren't going to leave him with that Oscar kid by himself, right?" Sarah chews her bottom lip anxiously, pinching the fabric of her Jean shorts in her fingers out of nervous habit.

"Don't worry, Sarah. I'm just going to take him to the dining pavilion while you get settled in. I'll watch out for him today." Katherine reassures Sarah. Both girls go quiet for a minute, both staring blankly at each other until Les interrupts.

"If you're done with the staring contest, I'd like to go see this dining pavilion. I'm starving!" Les exclaims. Katherine chuckles lightly and Sarah blushes. She carefully walks into the cabin, only sending one last look back to her little brother and Katherine before facing the inside of the cabin.


	5. Apollo and Athena

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Half the siblings have found their cabins. Now it's time for the other half. While we're at it, let's meet the gang.

"Alright, here we are. The cabins!" Jack leads both boys towards a large hearth surrounded by a ring of cabins. Mush stares in wonder, forgetting about how unbelievable the day has been. David, however, is still in partial shock and has been quieter than Mush, which is very difficult since the kid hardly talks.

"This one right up here is Apollo's Cabin, home of music, medicine, and arrows. Don't let that fool you, I'd actually keep an eye on these kids. They're interesting." Jack jokes, leading Mush and David up to the front door of the cabin. He knocks a few times before a short boy with blonde hair opens the door. "Kenny, by guy, how's it been?"

"I'm seriously going to put you in a padded room if you're here because you got hurt again." The kid, Kenny, deadpans. Jack takes a step back, his hand over his heart and a hurt expression on his face.

"Well now I'm hurt. Have a little faith?" Kenny raises an eyebrow at Jack before Jack huffs. "Anyway, this is Davey and Mush. Mush is an Apollo kid."

"Cool, I'm Kenny. I'm the head counselor of the Apollo Cabin." Kenny sticks a hand out for Mush and David to shake. David narrows his eyes at Jack as he says his name wrong, but he does get a chance to say anything. "Come on in and I'll give you a rundown of everything before lunch."

"Right. I guess I'll see you later, David." Mush squeezes David's shoulder before hesitantly following Kenny inside the large cabin. The door shuts behind him, leaving Jack and David on the small front porch.

"Well that was easy. Now, let's go meet Finch." Jack turns in his heel, grabbing David's upper arm to make him follow. When he's sure David won't stop in his spot and have a breakdown, Jack let's go and pops a piece of gum in his mouth. Even though he'll be going right to lunch in just a few minutes, chewing gum helps him relax. He isn't too sure why he's nervous, but he can guess it has something to do with David.

"What is going on?" David whispers to himself, not realizing Jack heard him. He still hasn't fully processed everything, so he isn't freaking out just yet.

"Don't think about it too much, you'll just make your head hurt. Well, not hurt since you're one of the smart kids, but still. Trying to take it all in at once is not fun, and that's speaking from experience." Jack laughs as he steps up on the deck of another cabin. Before he can knock on the door, it opens and a blond kid tries to walk out only to stop. He looks between Jack and David, an eyebrow raising at the former.

"What do you need now, Jack?" The boy sighs deeply and runs a hand down his face. David frowns at the faint circles under his eyes and wonders why a kid at a summer camp could look so drained. Then again, this isn't a normal summer camp by a long shot.

"What's up with everyone taking shots at me today, huh? Can't a guy introduce a new camper once in a while?" Jack throws his arms up and let's them fall against his legs. The boy looks over to David and takes in the tense and disbelieving expression on his face. Jack catches his attention again by taking a deep breath. "Finch, this here is Davey, his mom's Athena."

"It's David, not Davey." David huffs. He's hardly met this kid and he's already getting a bit annoyed with him, although he did fight off those monsters and ultimately saved David and his family's lives.

"Well, David, I'm Finch. I'm the head counselor of the Athena Cabin." Finch just nods and gives David a forced smile. David returns it while Jack groans.

"You nerds are so uptight. Just get Davey settled in so we can all get lunch. I'm starving." Jack borderline whines. Finch rolls his eyes and gestures for David to come inside.

The rest of the morning moves rather quickly for the Jacobs siblings. Each one is settled into a bunk and given a rundown on camp rules by their counselors, or Katherine in Les' case. The four don't see each other again until they meet at the dining pavilion for lunch. If the morning hadn't been stressful enough already, it was about to get much worse. After all, all four siblings had learned that high school cafeterias were horrible. Dining with an entire pavilion full of, what they had been informed were, hyperactive, loud demigods wasn't exactly a desired challenge.

"Sarah!" Sarah stops from where she stands next to Henry and focuses on the owner of the voice. She's surprised to see Mush running up to her with a huge smile on his face. "Isn't this cool? I mean, it's sort of like summer camp."

"Yeah, Mush. It's kinda normal." She's offset by how talkative Mush seems, although he hasn't said much. Even when she could get him to open up, he's usually so quiet. She starts wondering what could've possibly put him in such a great mood.

"You guys don't even know the half of it. Unlike you, I get a whole cabin to myself! Well, mostly." Mush and Sarah turn to Les, who's grinning proudly with his arms crossed. Katherine stands next to him and rolls her eyes.

"Well wouldya lookey here, the whole crews back together again!" Jack runs up and playfully shoves Katherine. David and a blond boy come up next to him, both seeming awkward and tense. Jack calls his hands together, grabbing everyone's attention. "Alright, so since Katherine and I had the pleasure of showing the newbies around, I say we invite them to sit at our table!"

"Your table? I thought the orientation video said we all have to sit at our cabin tables?" David asks, momentarily surprising Jack. The kid hardly said a word earlier. It makes him wonder just what exactly Finch said to him.

"That's just a guideline now, especially since we're adding more cabins. Some demigod who completed a quest for the gods made it their wish, although it was kind of weird. Some kids get stuck eating alone, so Miss. Medda let's us all sit together as long as we follow the rest of the rules. She doesn't want anyone to feel excluded." Henry answers David's question. "And vote Yes, they all seem pretty cool."

"I agree. Besides, it'd be nice to have a few new faces." Katherine smiles, her eyes flitting over to Sarah briefly.

"Well let's sit down then, don't need food going to waste, now do we!" Jack saunters off towards a table that seems to be overflowing with kids. There's laughter and conversations coming from the compact table, but there are still a surprising amount of seats left. The noise and chatter hardly drops when the new group arrives at the table. "Attention, fellas! We got some new folks joining us for lunch today, so behave!"

"You're one to talk!" A kid at the table jabs at Jack, earning a couple laughs.

"Oh, haha, very funny Crutchie. Now, this here is Sarah, Davey, Mush, and Les." Jack gestures to the siblings before gesturing to the table. "You guys can introduce yourselves in your own time, I'm hungry."

"When aren't you hungry?" A red head kid snorts. This earns a glare from Jack, but it drops when plates start to appear on the tables.

"Whoa, where are they coming from?" Les gawks as some plates fly over and settle on the tables in front of them.

"Nymphs, they bring us our dinner. Come on, let's sit down and dig in." Henry hurries around the table and sits next to a boy with dark, curly hair. The boy gives Henry a strained smile and cautiously looks at the four new campers. 

Katherine sits down in the first open seat, promoting Les to sit next to her. Sarah and David move around to sit across from them while Mush sits next to Les. Finch walks down the table and takes a seat next to the red haired kid, both exchanging a quiet conversation.

"Make sure you don't eat it all, remember we have to dump some in the fire for the gods." Katherine points to the four siblings. All four nod and start picking through their food. As they eat and relax a bit, Sarah can't help but notice the blond kid sitting next to Katherine. He's staring at a short, buff kid with dark hair and eyes. There's a familiar mischievous smile on his face as him and the kid talk.

"Hey, Race right?" The kid turns to Sarah and seems momentarily surprised that she remembers him.

"The one and only. I'm surprised you remembered me, although I can't blame you." Race winks, his eyes moving to the dark haired boy again.

"Yeah, you were the kid who flirted with my brother." Race's face drops and he looks to the dark haired boy with wide eyes. The shorter boy crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow at Race, the latter stuttering out some sort of explanation.

"That is the best thing ever." Katherine snorts quietly. Sarah smiles and keeps digging through her food.

"So, who're your godly parents?" All four siblings turn to the boy next to Sarah, all four recognizing him as one of the twins from the van. The thing is, they can't figure out which one.

"I'm Hede, David's Athena, Mush is Apollo, and Les is Dionysus." Sarah repeats everything Miss. Medda told her earlier, not really remembering much besides that. 

"Nice, I'm Hermes. Mike and I both are." The four siblings make a note that this is Ike. Sarah glances down the table and notes that Ike's part line in his hair is on the right side of his head while Mike's is on the left.

"What about everyone else?" Les asks. Ike takes a drink of whatever's in his cup, reminding the four siblings of the orientation video. One of the cooler parts was definitely the refilling cups of whatever you want out of all the strange insanity. Ike clears his throat and starts pointing around the table, starting with the boy next to him.

"This is Hotshot, son of Hades." Ike bumps his shoulder against a skinny, dark haired boy. The boy raises an eyebrow before Ike smiles and the boy looks away with an eye roll. Ike turns back to the siblings and shrugs. "He's a bit shy."

"That's because he has you to handle all the socializing." Katherine points an accusing finger at Ike, making the boy raise his hands in defeat.

"Anywho, moving on, next to Hotshot is Spencer, but we call him Specs. He's a son of Hades too, just a bit more outgoing. Next to him is his boyfriend Romeo, son of Aphrodite. Odd combination, but they work." The group looks down at a dark skinned boy with glasses smiling at something an almond eyed boy said, his face animated as he talks. 

"You know Mike, he's next to Romeo. Next up is Elmer, son of Demeter. Not the sharpest tool in the box, but he's a great friend." There's a large grin on Elmer's face as he listens intently to whatever the boy next to him is saying.

"After him is Buttons and then Charlie, but we call him Crutchie. Buttons is a son of Hephaestus because he's always fixing stuff, which can be really annoying. Crutchie's a son of Tyche and he has a limp. He's lucky he only got the bum leg after a quest, but he's great." Sarah takes note of how everyone seems to be smiling and laughing around the table, making her feel more comfortable with the atmosphere.

"Across from Crutchie is Jack, you know him, and that's his half brother Morris. Morris' real brother is Oscar, who I'm assuming shortstop here already met." Les frowns at the table, but Ike doesn't notice. "Anyway, he's okay. He's only really a jerk when Oscar's around. And you know Henry, son of Hebe. Him and Jack have been working to help Morris adjust to camp even though he's been here for a few years."

"But overall he's nicer than Oscar?" Les asks, a hopeful look in his eye. He might not know Oscar very well, or Morris, but part of him hopes at least one of the two has some decency.

"For the most part, depends on who he's around. Moving on is Jojo, he's Katherine's half brother and a Roman Demigod. He's pretty quiet, but he's cool." There's a blank look on Jojo's face, but he doesn't look mad. Just uninterested.

"You know Finch, son of Athena. He's, uh, a bit rough around the edges. He's been at camp longer than any of us." This catches David's attention, although he doesn't pry. He might be curious, but he's sensible enough not to pry. "Anyway, next to him is Albert, son of Poseidon. He's probably the only thing keeping Finch sane in this place."

"You make it sound like we're in an insane asylum." Sarah awkwardly laughs, hoping to ease some of the tension brought on by the topic.

"Well, when you've been here year round for thirteen years, it feels like it." The tension only intensifies before Mike clears his throat. "Anyway, just be patient with him. He's a really smart guy and he's great, but he can just break away sometimes."

"Noted." Sarah sighs.

"Moving on to these two, I don't know how but you know Race. He's my half brother, son of Hermes. And that's Spot, son of Ares." The siblings all frown as Race tries to poke Spot's face with a celery stick, Spot obviously trying his best to ignore the blond. Ike turns to the siblings, his eyes somewhere wide. "Yeah, I'm really sorry you know him." 

"It's all good, the worst he's done was flirt with David in the hallway of our apartment." Ike snorts a loud laugh, making the four siblings laugh with him.

"Alright, fellas, finish up so we can get training!" Jack calls and the table seems to just scatter, although it's all towards the large fire in the center of the dining area. Katherine sticks back with the Jacobs siblings, standing up and nodding for them to follow.

"Training? For what?" Sarah asks as she jogs to fall in step with Katherine, her brothers behind her. They jump in the line in front of the fire and wait to get to the front.

"Well, we train every day, but today's special." Katherine bites her lip to hold in just how excited she is for the rest of the day.

"Why's today special?" David asks, the small group moving up closer to the fire. They eventually reach it and scrape their portions into the fire. They place their plates in a bin and Katherine leads them to the edge of the dining area before she points across camp to a large forest.

"You saw in the orientation video that you can't go in the woods under any circumstances… except for one. We have a game we like to play, but we use it as training because we actually fight each other." Katherine stares longingly at the woods, ready for the upcoming competition. She looks back to the four, noticing just how confused they are. 

"Tonight, we play Capture the Flag."


	6. Training

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Capture the Flag is a favored game at camp. Now comes the factor of preparing the newbies for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keep in mind there are other campers, but I'm going to focus on our named characters for the sake of simplicity.

"I'm sorry, tonight we play what?" David asks Katherine. Through his years in school, his weakest area was always P.E. It's not that he couldn't be athletic, it's that he's much better with academics than athletics. His experiences with capture the flag in the gym haven't exactly been the best.

"Capture the Flag. It's kind of like a mock battle, but no one actually dies. It's really fun once you get the hang of it." All four siblings gawk at Katherine and she takes a shaky breath. "And it's fun when you actually know what we're doing, I guess."

“Are you kidding? This is awesome!” David gawks at Les. The youngest of the four siblings jumps up and down, a giddy smile on his face.

“I’m sorry Les, but you can’t play just yet. Medda made a rule that any new campers younger than fifteen have to go through training before playing.” Les visibly starts pouting. David, on the other hand, is on the verge of a minor freak session.

“What about us?! All of us are new! We don’t know how to fight!” Katherine stares wide eyed as David starts pacing back and forth in the grass of the dining pavilion.

“Speak for yourself, I think this sounds amazing! What’s the worst that can happen?” Sarah shrugs. She was always better with sports, but only because she started a game and just had fun with it. It didn’t matter if she was good, if she won, or even if she was playing the game right. No matter what, it was all just for fun.

“I think it sounds great.” Mush mimics Sarah’s previous shrug. “I could try out those bows and arrows Kenny was telling me about.”

“Are you two forgetting that Katherine said this is like a mock battle? It’s basically a war game!” David’s hands wave around chaotically, making the four others around him take small steps back.

“We’ll be fine, David. We have friends to help us figure this out. Just relax.” Sarah carefully approaches her twin and squeezes his shoulder. Once he calms down enough to not look totally insane, Sarah turns to Katherine. “So, where do we start with this training stuff?”

***

The four siblings break off with different campers. Les follows Romeo towards the arts and crafts, although he does it with a slight pout in his face since he isn’t starting training until tomorrow. Mush goes off with Kenny to try out the bows and arrows. Sarah goes with Katherine, the two of them going off towards the armory to find a weapon for Sarah and get her armor. David hesitantly goes with Jack, mostly because Finch disappeared after lunch.

“So, Davey, what d’ya think you’re gonna do in the game?” Jack asks as they walk towards the armory.

“You’re joking, right? I don’t have a single clue how to fight. I’ll probably just end up with a sword at my throat.” David grimaces as they pass a sparring session, a few campers fighting intensely with shields and swords.

“Quit worrying, you might actually get off good. Finch is usually our battle strategy guy, so you can probably just shadow him. Hopefully you’re on our team, I’d rather not have our first fight be over a stupid flag.” Jack jokingly winks at David, a grin working onto his face when David’s cheeks tint pink. Jack shoves David’s shoulder, just hard enough to mess with him. “I’s just kidding, but it would be nice to have you on our team. Don’t need Spot getting the upper hand in this game.”

“Wait, so it’s not your friend group? Everyone’s split?” David figured this was all like school, you get put on a team whether you like it or not. Usually all the athletic, sports friends end up on a team by strategically placing themselves in the line up to be picked for teams.

“Oh yeah, it’s more fun that way. Plus, watching Spot ‘nd Race fight is hilarious.” Of course Jack means physically. Verbal confrontations of the two is a completely different story. “Seriously, Race just mouths off until Spot goes nuts and chases him ‘round with a slingshot. That’s usually after either team wins, though.”

"Sounds like fun.” David sarcastically rolls his eyes. Jack takes notice and holds back making a comment. David is obviously uncomfortable, Jack doesn’t want to make the poor guy snap again.

“Well, let’s get you suited up so we can get some defense training.” And just like that, the two are in the armory getting the right materials for David.

Now in the arena, Sarah awkwardly holds a sword in her hand. She pulls at her armor, not exactly used to the weight and stiffness.

"Do I have to use a sword?" Sarah asks Katherine, her tone hopeful.

"Well, no, but learning to use is sword is the best place to start with combat training. There's bows, arrows, knives, slingshots, clubs, practically any weapon at your disposal, but I personally like using a sword. So, I'll be training you to use a sword." Katherine tosses her own sword in the air and catches it by the handle. She smiles when she sees the slight shock on Sarah's face, pride swelling in her chest.

"Okay, cool, but aren't swords supposed to be balanced? This feels… wrong." Sarah moves her arm up and down a few times to test the weight of the sword. She frowns and sends Katherine a nervous look.

"Don't worry about it right now. We'll find one that balances you as soon as there aren't a hundred kids swarming the armory and forge for the game tonight." Katherine tries her best to give Sarah a reassuring look. She thinks that she must've pulled it off based on the smile Sarah returns.

"Alright, let's get started."

***

"This is absolute insanity, why are we doing this. We aren't ready for this. You're all crazy." Sarah rolls her eyes as David rattles off next to her. Despite how she isn't particularly comfortable with the game, she'd rather play it without any preparation at all than deal with David's insistent paranoia.

"Relax, Davey. We won't let anything bad happen to ya." Jack claps his hand on David's shoulder making the latter jerk forward a little bit from the force. Sarah snorts quietly and shakes her head.

"Worst comes to worst, just hide in the boys bathroom or something. You wouldn't be the first." Katherine tries to be comforting, but by the way David's eyes only get wider, she realizes she probably didn't help much.

"Alright, attention everyone!" The awkward tension among the four is eased when Miss. Medda stands on a large wooden platform in front of what the Jacobs siblings had learned to be The Woods. The one place no camper could go unless they were playing a game of Capture the Flag. "We have a few new faces with us today, so let's split them into teams and get started!"

"Wait, we're splitting up?" Sarah asks Katherine. She had been expecting to be on the same team as David, mostly because the two are always a team.

"Seems so, but don't worry. Spot is a good captain so whichever one of you goes with him will probably just shadow him for the day. Plus, most of the guys from the lunch table will be there." Katherine lays a comforting hand on Sarah's shoulder. Sarah nods and bows her head, hoping to hide the slight tinge of pink on her face.

The group of kids around Jack, Katherine, David, and Sarah quickly thins out until two boys stand in front of the four. Spot Conlon stands with his arms crossed over his chest and a partial glare on his face. Hotshot stands next to him, his hands shoved in the pockets of his shorts. While Spot is decked out in armor with a weapon, Hotshot just wears a pair of black basketball shorts and a gray tank top.

"Jack, Katherine." Spot nods towards the two, but Jack snorts and rolls his eyes.

"Could you stop with the tough guy act for two seconds, jeez Spot. Gonna make people think you can't smile with that glare on your face." Sarah and David are taken aback by the teasing and almost visible tension between the two. At lunch it seemed like everyone was friends. Now it just seems like they hate each other.

"Both of you cut it out, we have a game to play." Katherine and Hotshot share a polite exchange briefly. It's at that moment that the two siblings come to the conclusion that despite the friendship at lunch, this is like a turf war to Jack and Spot. Once they set foot in the woods, they'll probably throw their friendship to the wind based on the staring contest currently going down between the two.

"Alright boys, enough with the standoff, we have a game to play before dinner." Spot and Jack immediately break at the sound of Miss. Medda's voice. 

"Alright, we'll take Sarah." Hotshot says with a side glance at Spot. The two might be the closest friends you'll ever meet, but even Hotshot can get fed up with how Spot acts sometimes.

"Alright, that's settled, let's get this game started! You all know the rules, make sure to debrief Sarah and David." Miss. Medda claps her hands together, an almost excited look on her face. Although the game is a favorite among the campers, she enjoys watching and acting as a referee. Well, as long as no one gets hurt.

"I'll see you after the game David." Sarah smiles before hurrying off to follow Spot. David watches her with conflicted feelings before Jack grabs his arm and they all start into The Woods.  
David sticks close to Katherine as the group, who he had learned is the Blue Team, moves carefully through The Woods. It's not until they reach a large pile of rocks that oddly resembles a fist.

"Alright, we'll set up here. Finch and Buttons, get started on our strategy. David, you stick with Finch since you's a smart kid too. Katherine and I will get the flag up on the rocks. Once Finch and Buttons get a plan set up, we'll get ready." Jack ordering everyone around is a new sight for David, although it seems to suit him. He isn't bossing people around, but he's acting like a leader and David respects that. His anxiety over the game spiked after Sarah left, but he isn't allowed much time to ponder it.

He's pulled out of his gaze of admiring Jack when Finch taps his shoulder.

"Come on, let's get started." David nods and follows Finch to where the boy he recognizes as Buttons kneels on the ground near a patch of dirt.  
On the opposite side of the woods, the Red Team sets up an open patch of meadow in the woods. 

"Alright, Jojo and Mike are on strategy duty. Defense, let's get the flag in place and spread out to the creek." Sarah watches as the group she had learned to be the Red Team seems to work like a machine. Although it's a slightly disfunctional and busted machine, it's still a machine. She does mind being separated from David, but she would rather be with him than be dealing with the likes of Oscar Delancey. Just his presence and overall bad attitude is tedious.

"Hey, how's it going sis." Sarah grins when Henry bumps his shoulder against hers.

"Hey, I didn't know you were on this team." Henry shrugs and lets out a deep breath.

"Spot said you can stick with me today. I'm usually on the offensive, but today we're just going to stick to learning the playing field. Plus, we can watch all the fun." Henry doesn't seem as upset about not playing as Sarah originally thought he would. She had learned after getting settled in the cabin that Hebe is the goddess of youth as well as the cupbearer to the Gods. It explained Sarah's overwhelming immaturity sometimes and her overall free spirit, but she also pinned a lot of her childish nature to this. She assumed Henry would be similar, meaning he'd want to participate in something developed by a childhood gym class game.

"Cool, so what do we do?" Sarah asks. A group of kids that had been surrounding a large patch of dirt breaks up and kids begin disappearing into the woods again. Some stay and stand in a spaced out circle around the red flag in the middle of the open meadow.

"I'm usually on the offensive, but it just depends on if I'm in the right space the tag someone. For today, we are both going to sneak around and if we get a chance to get the blue flag, awesome. If not, it'll be good for you to get an idea of what's going on." Sarah is unbelievably thankful for Henry. She had originally thought she'd be thrown into this thing with an off balance sword and heavy armor with only an afternoon's worth of training. To say she's relieved now would be an understatement.

Sarah waits next to Henry until her eyes land on Oscar practically standing over another boy who looks like him. She recognizes the boy as Morris, Oscar's you get brother. He had been sitting at the lunch table between Jack and Morris. She frowns as Morris all but shrinks into himself as Oscar obviously starts going on about something. She glances over to Henry and notes the angry look on Henry's face.

"You okay?" She nudges his shoulder with hers. Henry briefly looks to Sarah before looking to the ground.

"I'm fine, it's Morris I'm worried about. He's great, I swear. He's really nice if you can get him to open up, but his jerk of a brother scares him into being just like him. I can't do anything or it gets worse. We're all just waiting for the day Oscar leaves, which this should be his last summer since his birthday's in July." Henry stares longingly at Morris. Even though they don't get much time together without Oscar intervening, Henry never even considers giving up on Morris. It took nearly a year to get him to open up to Henry, only about two months after he unintentionally opened up to Jack.

"Should I be worried since him and Les are in a cabin together?" Sarah asks a question that had been on her mind since Katherine took Les to the cabin. Oscar was a jerk from the second he opened the door.

"He'll only be in there when we all go to bed. Oscar won't do anything that could get him in trouble." Sarah nods, but she's far from satisfied with the answer. Henry never said Les would be safe. Before she can give too much thought to it, there's a loud horn blowing that cuts through the forest. Henry turns to her with a giddy grin and he claps his hand on her shoulder.

"Let the game begin."


	7. Capture the Flag

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is in Race and Albert's point of views(in third person) than Davey's or Sarah's. I think it's fun, but leave comments and tell me what you think. I also changed some of the rules for the sake of having something different. I hope you like it!

“You people are absolutely insane!” Race grins when David yells at them over the horn that echos over the trees.

“You’ll be happy to know that we take that as a compliment.” Race jokingly winks at David before sprinting off through the trees. He can hear Albert close behind him and he can’t help but grin. They’re trying a new tactic. Apparently David’s best ideas came from sarcastic comments. He had commented something to Finch about Race distracting Spot and the others long enough for Albert or one of the other team members to sneak in and grab the flag. Race mentally kicked himself at hearing the plan because it’s ingenious. It made him wonder why they hadn’t thought of it before.

“Hold up fellas.” Race whispers, hearing voices and rustling up ahead. They haven’t crossed the creek yet, so they can easily tag whoever it is. However, since it is Race “leading” the offensive line for the Blue Team, he decides to have a little fun. He turns to Albert and Ike aka the two tasked with assisting Race with their offensive goal. Of course there are other groups on offense, but each one has a different way of getting things done. He smirks and points to the trees. “Start climbin’ boys.”

So they climb. They climb to the branches somewhat hidden above other branches, but close enough to the ground that they can easily jump down and tag their opponents. Race has to hold in a laugh when he sees Mike and some other members of the Red Team sneaking through the underbrush. Race shares a look with Albert and Ike in the branches near him, although Ike is in another tree. They all smirk and Race pulls one of many rocks out of his pocket. He chucks it into the brush a few feet in front of Mike and his team mates.

“Hold up, we got noise.” Mike stops his two other team mates. Race is practically purple as he holds in laughter from how serious Mike is. It’s a weird look on him. Race notices a look of realization on Mike’s face and he sends a nod to Albert and Ike. “Wait, it’s a trap! We need to-”

“Gotcha, suckers!” Race, Albert, and Ike jump off their branches and land on the ground, effectively tackling the three enemies. Mike groans loudly as Ike laughs chaotically.

“Dick move, Higgins.” Mike pouts. The three boys get off Mike and his team, all high fiving.

“Get a move on to the jail, fellas. We got a game to win.” Although they could easily sneak off and not go to jail, everyone- with the exception of Oscar, most of the time- is usually very honest. With the game, that is. The three Red Team members sulk off towards the jail before Race, Albert, and Ike take off towards the creek.

“Alright boys, time to go silent. We’ll split when we get sight of Conlon. Albert, you ‘nd me are on diversion duty. Ike, you go for the flag. Remember, only bail if you know you’ll get tagged.” The three nod to each other before cautiously slipping through the brush. Race takes the lead, his eyes flitting around in an attempt to spot an ambush. He listens closely, only hearing the quick, quiet footsteps of his fellow thieves- Albert hates the nickname, but Ike and Race outnumber him 2 to 1 so it stuck.

Race spies a red cut off and bronze out of the corner of his eye. He snaps his fingers and gestures for Ike to get in position while Albert hurries off in another direction away from Spot. Race can’t help but smirk as he crouches and moves quickly through the brush before coming up behind Spot.

“Hey Spottie!” The shorter boy jumps and whips around with a spear in hand. Race raises his hands to show he means no harm. “Woah bud, just poppin’ over ta say hi!”

“Why in the world would you just ‘pop over’ ta say hi?” Spot deadpans, although Race makes sure to note that Spot doesn’t make a move to attack him with the spear. 

“What? Can’t a fella say hi to his significant otha’ once ‘nd awhile?” Race wiggles his eyebrows at Spot and bites his lip, although his grin doesn’t drop for a second. At least, not until Spot lunges at Race. It’s a warning lunge, but it still makes Race jump back a few feet. “‘Nd ta think I thought we had somethin’ special, Spottie.”

“What’s your game, Race?” Oh no, Race thinks. If he doesn’t say the right thing in the next few seconds, Spot will very likely catch on to the plan. So he does the one thing he does best.

“‘Ey Spottie, someone’s got your flag!” Race points over Spot’s shoulder and Spot whips around. As soon as he does, he exhales deeply and turns back around to see Race gone. The only problem he has now is finding the mischievous blond.

Not too far off, Albert successfully manages to distract a small group of the Red Team’s defense. He dodges lunges and laughs when some of the group crash into each other. He’s only stopped when he comes face to face with Jojo.

“What’s up, Jojo? Just passin’ through.” Albert sighs when his longtime friend draws his sword and raises a challenging eyebrow at Albert. “Dude, do you really want to do this?”

“Kind of, consider this payback for the last time we played the game.” Albert mentally kicks himself for forgetting about how he completely drenched Jojo and tossed him all the way from his side of the woods to the creek. 

“You’re still mad about that?” Jojo jabs his sword at Albert’s armor, the latter dodging just in time to avoid getting a nasty bruise. “I see you are.”

Albert doesn’t even hesitate before pulling the water from the creek, which isn’t actually that far away, and encasing Jojo in the water before he sends the water back to the creek. He can hear Jojo yelling curses in roman before his voice fades. Albert turns around and immediately stumbles back when a throwing knife nearly cuts his cheek. He stabilizes himself and straightens his back. His eyes angrily scan his surroundings until he sees Oscar aiming another knife at him.

“Low blow, Delancey.” Albert growls, easily dodging as another knife skims past him. Albert doesn’t draw his sword, he instead pulls more water from the creek and uses it to scatter Oscar’s throwing knives. “Why don’t you quit being a coward and actually fight me.”

That’s all it takes for Oscar to launch himself at Albert. Although Albert is technically tagged when he’s pinned to the ground, him and Oscar start grappling. Oscar throws punches at Albert, who manages to avoid getting hit in any important areas on his face. Fighting isn’t discouraged in the game, but there’s a limit for how long and how violent it can get. Albert knows a black eye or broken nose won’t result in much punishment since it’s nothing that can’t be fixed. It doesn’t mean he wants either.

Albert uses what energy he has left after using most of it to pull the water and he throws Oscar off of him. He pins Oscar, but he’s distracted to the point where Oscar lands a particularly hard punch to Albert’s right eye. He falls back off of Oscar before realizing Oscar’s after him again.

Before either boy can do anything else, Albert hear’s voices.

“Where’s the flag?!”

“Someone got it!”

“There he goes!”

Albert gets up off the ground, and although he should be in jail, the rules change when a fight’s involved. Neither boy backed down, so Albert is technically not in jail. Instead of swelling on the thought, he starts running. He can see Ike sprinting through the foliage with the Red Team’s flag. Race is right next to him, acting as a cover of sorts. Albert quickly falls in step to guard Ike’s other side.

All three dodge members of the opposing team and somehow avoid getting tackled. Race shoves an enemy away, which doesn’t mean he’s been tagged since he wasn’t tackled. Albert spots the creek up ahead and keeps his eyes and ears open for anyone who might ruin their success.

Thankfully, all three make it back over the creek and into safe territory. They cheer and yell, a horn blowing to signal the end of the game. Race and Albert jump on Ike jokingly and tackle him to the ground.

Eventually, both teams gather at the creek. Albert hurries over to Finch and grabs him in a hug.

“I present to you, the reasons for our success!” Race gestures to Finch and David as Jack brings the latter further into the group. David’s beat red and there’s shock and concern in his eyes.

“Davey here’s got some brain on ‘im.” Jack grins and his eyes squint. Race turns to see Spot frowning from the other side of the creek. He briefly notices Henry talking to Sarah, the latter nodding her head a few times and smiling despite the loss. Instead of dwelling on them for too long, Race walks through the creek and stands in front of Spot. “You good, Spottie?”

“I’m fine.” Race can’t help the smile that grows on his face. There’s no fury or true anger on Spot’s face, just a hint of annoyance and slight disappointment.

“Aw, it’s okay Spot. You’ll win one of these days.” The boy in question shoves Race, but the frown stays on his face. Race would even go as far to say he’s pouting. Before he can say anything else, a voice interrupts him. 

“DaSilva!” Jojo storms through the creek. Race laughs loudly at the fear on Albert’s face. Race watches as his best friend grabs Finch’s hand and they sprint out of the woods. All of their friends bust out laughing and Race doesn’t miss the way Spot’s lips quirk up.


	8. Day Two, Acceptance and Adjusting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a bit of a filler, but I promise things are about to get interesting. The next chapter after this will be a bit more... exciting.

It took all of twenty-four hours to fully convince all the Jacobs siblings of their new reality. Sarah and Mush were both hesitant, although Les was unusually excited and accepting. Those three were overall easy to convince.

It was David, however, that took longer to convince.

It took some whining from Jack, that soon grew to be annoying, and some convincingly intelligent conversations with Katherine to get him to accept that the gods are real. He at least accepts that much.

It's the rest of the Demigod lifestyle he doesn't accept, but that's not due to denial. It's mostly due to personal views on swords and teenagers. Jack swears David would've made a PowerPoint if given the chance.

"Davey, listen ta me man, it ain't that bad! We all train and it's not like we go afta' innocent people or people in general! Just the occasional monster, honest!" Jack waves his hands erratically as he keeps pace with David, although he's not sure where his new, well, friend is going. He finished his archery activity for the day, with much hesitance. Jack doesn't really know David's schedule after that.

"It's still a weapon, a deadly weapon that's given to kids. You can try all you want, but I stand by my point." David trudges towards the arts and crafts area, although he'd rather get stuck trying to shoot a bow and arrow again. He might not agree much with the violence, but it's easier to shoot at an unmoving target than try to worry about his own artistic ability. To put it simply, there's not much to worry about since he can't do anything artistic to save his life.

“I understand where you’re comin’ from, honest, but we ain’t ever hurt anyone! I mean, there was one time Albert gave Jojo a concussion, but that had nothin’ ta do with weapons ‘nd such. ‘Nd there was this one time when Mike dunked Ike in the lake…” Jack trails off as David raises an eyebrow at him. “Alright, fine, but that had nothin’ ta do with weapons! That was just the fellas makin’ bad decisions!”

“‘Ey, becomin’ friends with you was rushed, but I wouldn’t call it a bad decision.” Race pops up, seemingly out of nowhere, making Jack flinch. Race starts laughing and dodges a punch to the arm.

“Very funny.” Jack huffs, although he can’t help but smile a bit. Race has been his friend, dare he say best friend, since his first day at camp. He loved Race like a brother, but the one thing he hated was Race’s ability to sneak up on anyone and everyone. Jack knew that all came from Race’s godly parent, although he wouldn’t doubt the kid would be a mischievous brat no matter what. Jack quickly pushes his annoyed thoughts aside and focuses back on David. “What I’m sayin’ is no one’s gettin’ hurt. Ya just gotta get used to everythin’.”

“You say that like this happens everyday.” David sighs heavily and hurries towards the crafts tent. Jack stops, his shoulders dropping in defeat as he watches David walk away. Camp really isn’t bad and Jack can’t figure out why David is so uptight and panicky. When Jack first came to camp, he just thought everything was super cool! He wasn’t logical and weird about it.

“You gonna shut your mouth or are ya gonna drool everywhere?” Jack narrows his eyes and swats at Race again. The blond boy laughs and squints as he looks between Jack and David’s retreating figure. “So the big, bad Jack Kelly has a crush.”

“What- I don’t- You’re seein’ things, Racer.” Jack successfully shoves Race, although his neck and cheeks burn and not because of the midday sun. He doesn’t have a crush on David, he’s only known him a day. Race is delusional.

“I’s seein’ heart eyes when ya look at him! It’s disgusting. I mean, it’s adorable, but disgusting.” Race makes a disgusted expression. Jack sighs loudly and starts walking away from his unbearable friend. “Aw, c’mon Jack! Ain’t nothin’ wrong with crushin’!”

I’m not crushin’, Jack thinks. He’s not, there’s no way. Alright, yes, he wouldn’t lie and say David wasn’t sort of attractive. He’s smart, and he might be on edge and jumpy, but he seems good so far. And yes, maybe Jack thought for a split second when he first saw David that he was a ghost from how pale he was. He can’t deny that he was thankful to see that David was alive so that he didn’t think a ghost was attractive. There's nothing wrong with finding someone attractive! Everyone can be attractive! You don’t have to have a crush on someone just because they’re smart and good looking, and kind of funny because they’re panicking over small things…

No, he’s not crushing.

Right?

***

Sarah is a ball of energy the next day. So much so, she nearly scares Mush and Les when she meets them at the amphitheater that night for the campfire. David should be showing up soon, although Srah’s not too concerned.

“Guys, this place is awesome! I got to ride on a literal pegasus earlier!” Mush and Les both jump as Sarah sits on the row of seats behind them. She’s beaming, her hair falling out of her ponytail and a slight layer of sweat on her forehead.

“You think that’s cool? I was swimming at the beach with Albert and Finch earlier and Albert used the water to throw me so high I could see the Statue of Liberty!” Les grins. 

“There’s no way, that’s not possible.” Sarah gently shoves Les’ arm.

“I don’t know Sarah, you could see pretty far if Albert threw you high enough.” Sarah’s mouth drops as Mush defends Les while high fiving the younger boy. She doesn’t even consider the danger of being so high above the water, she’s more offended by the fact that Albert didn’t show her that trick.

“Alright, truce. We all had a super awesome day so far.” Sarah rolls her eyes, although she starts grinning when Les and Mush start poking at her knees and making jokes.

“Hey Mush!” The three perk up as a boy with dark hair and pale skin rushes up to them. He has an eyepatch over one eye, but there’s a large grin on his face. Sarah doesn’t recognize him, but Les and Mush both smile at the newcomer. He stops a few feet in front of the trio, his grin never falling. “I didn’t get ta say thanks for the wrap earlier.”

“It’s nothing, Blink. Maybe try not doing trick shots next time.” Sarah narrows her eyes and smiles as Mush’s cheeks turn pink. 

“Ain’t nothin’ wrong with tryin’ ta impress some folks.” The new kid, Blink,offers Mush a wave and hurries off to join another group of kids. Sarah watches as Mush’s eyes follow the kid, a grin working onto her face.

“And what was that?” Sarah pokes Mush’s shoulder. He whips around, his cheeks still pink. Sarah holds in a laugh as he tries to think of something to say.

“What, Blink? I just wrapped his wrist for him after he tried to do a stunt at the archery range. It’s nothing.” Sarah mentally notes that the now red color on Mush’s cheeks says otherwise. She doesn’t say anything though. Not yet, anyway. She does, however, share a knowing look with Les.

“Hey guys.” The three perk up again to see David sliding into the seat next to Sarah and behind Les.

“Well you look interesting. Rough day?” Sarah laughs at the glitter paint covering David’s hands and lower arms. Les cackles loudly making David pick at the green and blue glitter.

“We both know my artistic talent is slim to nothing.” David glances up to see Sarah and Mush both red faced and biting their lips. “Alright, just let it out. Les is already dying over here.”

That’s all it takes for the two to start laughing loudly along with Les. David tries to control a smile, ultimately ends up laughing with the others. They sit and talk as the amphitheater fills up with campers.

“Alright Mush, so tell me, what cabin is your friend Blink from?” Sarah leans and an elbow on Mush’s shoulder. It’s almost time for the campfire and some of their new friends have joined, although they’re in their own conversations.

“He’s in the Hephaestus Cabin.” Mush leaves the topic at that. The four Jacobs siblings all mentally wonder if that’s why he has the eyepatch, but none say anything.

“Davey!” The boy in question tries not to groan as he focuses on Jack jogging up to them. Don’t get him wrong, Jack seems fine. He’s been nice and everything, but he’s extremely talkative and just out there. It’s a bit overwhelming. He offers Jack a tight smile though as he takes the set next to Les. Katherine follows and sits next to Mush, Crutchie and Jojo following. Jack nudges Les’ shoulder, effectively catching the attention of the younger boy. “How was your day, kid?”

“Pretty great, Romeo, Elmer, and me buried Buttons in the sand at the beach. It was great, we made him look like a mermaid.” This makes anyone listening around them laugh, although Buttons mutters and throws an ‘until next time’ look towards Les.

“You think that’s good, you should try digging a hole, putting a towel over it, and waiting for him to lay down. Now that’s a laugh.” The look on Les’ face could rival even Race’s, and ‘mischief’ is an ever present expression on that boy’s face.

“Yo Mush, let’s go!” Kenny calls from near the large fire pit. Mush waves to everyone and gets up to join the rest of the Apollo Cabin campers. Some have musical instruments, others are laughing together.

“Attention campers!” The now full amphitheater quickly goes quiet as Miss. Medda raises her hands, a grin on her face. “Now I know we didn’t get a campfire yesterday because of the game, so let’s make tonight extra special!”

“You guys know the drill!” Kenny jumps up next to Miss. Medda. He strums a chord on a guitar and pretty soon the amphitheater is filled with voices singing and laughing. David sits silently next to Sarah, although she manages to get him to laugh by knocking her shoulder against his. He doesn’t sing, but he looks around the group of campers he at least recognizes as companions.

Race is dramatically draping himself over Spot, making elaborate gestures to the song. Spot playfully shoves Race off, but he starts laughing at some point. Albert and Finch are both swaying in their seats, hands laced together on Finch’s knee. Both are singing along, although they occasionally stop to laugh at Race. Ike is acting similar to Race, although he manages to get Hotshot to sing along with him. Everyone else is singing and laughing, making everything seem so normal. Like the gods of ancient Greece and Rome don’t exist. Like none of this exists on an otherworldly scale.

David notices that Sarah playfully taps Katherine’s hand with her foot and the two grin as they sing. He notices how Jack makes weird faces to make Les laugh.

He decides that maybe this isn’t so bad.Sure, there are some war games essentially and they train with real weapons instead of the normal summer camp, but David won’t lie and say it isn’t kind of fun. Plus, he got lucky to be introduced to some, well, interesting people. And although he still doesn’t know how he feels around them, specifically the overbearing personality known as Jack Kelly, he feels like he could at least make a few friends here.

And that maybe there’s some normalcy in all of this madness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's going to get interesting from here. What do you guys think, is a quest in the future???


	9. David Needs to Learn to Shut Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first two weeks of camp were great. Sarah, Mush, and Les adjusted fantastically, David adjusted a bit slower, but overall it was great.
> 
> What happens when it all goes haywire?

  
There’s no normalcy in the madness.

Let’s back up to the morning of the Jacobs Siblings first two weeks at camp. It’s mid June and everything has changed. All four have easily fit into camp. Mush has taken up spending time at the infirmary when he can. He claims it’s because he enjoys helping people, but Sarah is very confident it’s because a certain someone has to come in constantly due to injuries from tinkering with things or making dumb decisions. Les has made friends with basically everyone, except Oscar. He’s tried talking with his half brother, but it only ever ends in sarcastic comments or Les being ignored.

Sarah is much like Les. She’s made friends with everyone. She’ll pull pranks on the guys with Race and the twins, she’ll take Albert and Romeo’s bets, and she’s even managed to make not just Spot, but Hotshot, smile.

David took more time to adjust. He spoke to the guys and laughed a bit, but he only really opened up to Katherine and Crutchie for a while. They were calmer than the others, anyway. He sometimes talked with Finch, but his half brother was tense and he seemed to struggle with talking comfortably with David.

And then there was Jack.

David wouldn’t lie and say he hadn’t at least started liking Jack a bit more. He realized that Jack was more than an outspoken personality with a sarcastic flare. He was at the very least tolerable. 

Everything was going great. All four siblings had made friends and learned the basics in training. They could handle weapons, Mush taking an obvious liking to a bow and arrow. Sarah adapted unreasonably well to a sword. Les worked a bit with every weapon, although he enjoyed pulling out a slingshot with Finch once and a while. David awkwardly started using a sword, although he was still very opposed. He did okay with hand to hand combat, but he ultimately said he would only train like this for personal protection. He prefers strategizing over anything else.

They were happy. They had friends, they had memories forming, they were at a summer camp for children with godly parents. It’s literally every teenager's dream.

And then came the morning of their fifteenth day at camp. For David, it started the same as every other day so far. He woke up, got ready for the day, and walked out of the cabin.

Enter Jack Kelly.

"Good mornin', Davey!" Jack pushes off from where he's leaning against the side of the Athena Cabin, a lopsided smile on his face. David offers him a smile, although he's still a bit tired.

"Good morning, Jack." David starts walking towards the dining pavilion. Him and his siblings decided to meet each other while meeting with the rest of their dining table companions. Of course, David doesn't get too far before he has another set of feet next to him.

"Ya' really need to stop ignorin' me, Dave. I ain't goin' nowhere, you can't get rid of me that easy." David breathes a laugh when Jack playfully shoves his shoulder.

"I'm not ignoring you. You do realize that I literally woke up fifteen minutes ago?" David raises a challenging eyebrow at his… well, possible friend. Jack rolls his eyes, but the smile never leaves his face as they get closer to the pavilion.

"Gotta wake up, Jacobs. Ain't gonna get nowhere if-" David doesn't hear if Jack says anything else, he's more focused on the world that starts violently shaking around him. He crouches and holds his arms out for balance, but he stumbles around as his feet lose their footing. He's vaguely aware of Jack cursing and stumbling next to him, but he's too focused on maintaining his own stability to notice too much.

By the time the world has stopped shaking enough for David to stand upright, there's yelling and kids running past him hurriedly. David stumbles more when someone accidentally runs into him and he's steadied by hands on his shoulders. He whips around to see a confused Jack glancing around erratically.

"Jack, what's going on?" David asks, moving occasionally to get out of someone's way. Beforehand Jack can answer, the world starts shaking again and the two boys grab onto each other to keep from falling. Once everything's semi-stable again, there's more yelling.

"I don't know. Get to the armory, I need to find Katherine." Jack answers and he gives David a concerned look before sprinting off. David gawks for about two seconds before he turns and hurries towards the armory.

"David!" He stops right outside the armory and turns, only to have a body crash into his. He mentally kicks himself for not worrying about his siblings, although he's relieved as Les squeezes him in a hug. Sarah follows, her head moving around erratically as people rush past them.

"What the hell is going on? I was just with Katherine and then that earthquake hit and she told me to come to the armory." Sarah breathes, moving closer to David and Les to stay out of peoples' way.

"I don't know, I got the same thing from Jack." David hardly finishes before there's a series of loud bangs and the world shakes harder, throwing him and anyone around him against the wall of the armory or to the ground. He holds Les close and grabs Sarah's arm, all three huddling close to keep from falling. It's hardly over when someone runs at them.

"C'mon, ain't no use standin' 'round!" It's Race. He grabs David and Sarah and pulls them into the armor with Les still attached to David. Race let's go of them and hurries to grab armor and weapons. He returns quickly and shoves the heavy metal into David and Sarah's arms. "Put that on and get a weapon. Sword or somethin'."

"What about Les?" Sarah asks, already pulling on the bronze- correction, celestial bronze- chest plate.

"You're comin' with me, pip squeak. Getcha a slingshot and get ya' to a safe spot. Dave, you find Finch. Sarah, get to Henry." And with that, Race takes off with Les' hand in his. David finally processes just how insane it all is when another harsh eave hits, sending kids, armor, and weapons to the floor. Sarah all but shoves David into his armor and drags him out of the armory.

"Everyone's going towards the Parthenos." Sarah points and David nods. They run towards Half-blood Hill, David slightly behind he's more athletic twin. As they run, more and more comes into view and David nearly stops in shock.

There are campers- his friends- hovering and flying in the air, dodging different projectiles. Other campers run chaotically near the border and sit in trees with slingshots and bows and arrows. But that's not the shocking part.

The most shocking part is the hoard of creatures, monsters, pushing against the border to camp and throwing rocks and anything they can get their hands on.

It's no longer surprising as another harsh shockwave hits. Both campers and monsters alike stumble around, some campers falling out of the trees they're perched in.

David can see Katherine, Albert, and Spot at the front of the mass of campers, both slashing their swords towards monsters close enough to the border. He can see Mike and Ike zipping around, shoes with wings keeping them in the air. He can see monsters randomly falling and he sees Jack and Morris Delancey both hovering in the air with a purple haze around them. 

This is all crazy. None of this should be real. The monsters, the weapons, the magic. It's all completely and utterly insane.

"David, over here!" He snaps out of his minor panic and he finds Finch sprinting towards him. David barely registers Sarah squeezing his arm before she's running up the hill, no doubt to find Henry. Finch comes to a stuttering stop in front of David and he grabs David's arm. It shocks David because this is the most emotion or physical contact he's gotten from Finch. "Come on, we gotta get up there and work out a plan of sorts. Figure out where the shockwaves are coming from."

"Yeah, okay." David says as he exhales shakily, but he follows Finch and they suck behind a large boulder that David definitely doesn't remember being there before. There are a few campers already working through some sort of plan while others cover them with bows and arrows.

"They're working out a plan to get rid of the monsters, we need to figure out what's causing the shockwaves." Finch grabs a few daggers and a sword before nodding towards a large cave. David follows him, trying his best to not look at the boundary lined with monsters. As they enter the cave, David jumps at the sight of two boys arguing with each other.

"We need to help, actually do something!"

"Oh, and what do you plan to use to fight? A book? A ink pot? Do tell!"

"Could you stop it with the negativity for five seconds?!"

"Bill, Darcy!" Both boys jump as Finch calls out their names. David's eyebrows furrow when both huff and cross their arms, nearly in sync.

"Care to explain what's going on exactly? All I know is that our cave is cracking and if it's cracking that means all of my books are going to be ruined!" The boy with glasses- Darcy- moves his hands from being crossed to being firmly planted on his shoulders.

"Would you forget about your books for a second? We are literally under attack!" The shorter of the two- Bill- throws his hands up and the two launch into another argument.

"David, this is Bill and Darcy. They're our oracles. We typically only have one, but these two did something to anger the spirit and now they're stuck like this. Hence the arguing." Finch sighs. David nods hesitantly and follows Finch towards the back of the large cave. His jaw drops when he sees large, crooked cracks covering the entirety of the back wall. He hears Finch curse, immediately drawing his attention to the blond boy. "Whatever's causing those shock waves is trying to break through."

"Can it get through?" Logically- for the most part- David knows nothing besides his fellow campers can get through, but he has to wonder if the same rules of the magical boundary apply underground.

"No, but it can cause a lot of damage and give us a weak link. Not to mention a cave-in could cause an entire section of the hill to collapse. Plus, Bill and Darcy would be in a vulnerable position." David notices how Finch frowns, although it's different from his typical frown. This frown is calculating and focused. His usual frown is detached and David would go as far as to say depressed. It makes him wonder how bad a situation has to be for Finch to act so different. David is snapped out of his thoughts when another shockwave hits, this one strong enough to knock him and Finch to the floor of the cave, books from shelves following. More cracks appear on the wall, dust and small rocks launching from the jagged lines. Finch is the first to sit up, his eyes wide and his head shaking just a bit. "Go get Jack or Morris. One of them can hold this up long enough to subdue the monsters."

David doesn't wait, he runs as fast as he can out of the cave to find Jack. He's halfway up the hill when he spots Jack's familiar frame hovering in the sky.

"Jack!" David cups his hands over his mouth, yelling as loud as he can over yells and clashing of swords. He notices how Jack perks up, his head whipping around until a confused frown focuses on David. He waves Jack over, trying to make his motions convey urgency. Jack turns around briefly before he suddenly appears in front of David.

"Davey, what's wrong? You hurt? Somethin' happen?" Jack checks over David with his eyes and David blushes before shaking his head.

"No, the back wall in the cave is about to collapse, Finch needs either you or Morris down there to hold it up until we can figure out what's causing the cracks." David notices Jack's worried expression as he finishes talking and how Jack throws it over his shoulder. David follows Jack's gaze to see Morris surrounded in a much more noticeable purple haze now. He briefly wonders if Sarah and Les are alright, but he's quite literally knocked out of it by another violent shockwave. "They're becoming for frequent, that wall won't last long and it could cause this entire section of the hill to cave-in."

"Alright, let's get movin'." Jack sprints past David and the latter wonders why he was so against sports in school. At least if he had done track or something he'd be used to this running. He's right behind Jack as they run into the cave and they barely get a few steps before Jack launches himself towards the back of the cave and a large, purple light flashes. David is in awe as purple streaks up the cracks in the cave wall and everything seems to stabilize.

"Alright, you stay here and keep an eye on him. If everything starts falling apart, get both of you out of here no matter what, got it?" Finch raises his eyebrows at David, his eyes flicking back and forth between David's. The latter nods and soon Finch is running out of the cave, leaving David nearly alone.

***

Les had never been more terrified in his life, although he couldn't exactly place what was more terrifying. The hoard of monsters hurling trees and boulders over the magical boundary or the fact that he let Race drag him up one of the few trees on the hill.

"That the best you got!" Race yells after successfully launching a large pebble through the skull of a screeching harpy, effectively turning it to dust. "C'mon kid, either you start launching some rocks at these pests or I'll be launching you through the air."

Les briefly glares at Race before grabbing a rock from Race's stash. After days of practicing with the slingshot and getting tips from Finch, Les has become a decent shot. He can typically hit his target when he focuses enough.

That's why he gets so excited when he watches a creature resembling pictures from the Vampire books Sarah reads turn to dust after one of the rocks he launched hit her square in the forehead.

"That's what I'm talkin' about, there ya' go kid!" Race grins at him.

"Thanks." Les mutters, only slightly embarrassed. 

The two launch rock after rock at the monsters until Race flies down using his shoes to grab more rocks. Les can see his sister near Henry, confusion and hesitance on her face as she follows Henry's lead in attacking monsters from their side of the boundary. He gets worried when he doesn't see David or Mush, but he quickly stops worrying for Mush when he sees his practically brother carrying a camper down the hill towards the infirmary with another Apollo camper.

"Alright kid, back to business." Race appears again and they start launching pebbles again. Race stabilizes Les whenever shockwaves shake the world around them. It takes over half an hour before the shaking permanently shocks and what monsters weren't turned to dust flee into the woods. Les subconsciously sighs and watches as Race slumps against the trunk of the tree, his eyes closed and his shoulders heaving from how hard he had been breathing.

Les takes a minute to take a breath before he hears more yelling from campers below.


	10. Someone Better Explain What's Going On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The camp settles after the attack while our group of demigod friends tries to reassure each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is very late and very short and I'm sorry! There are probably some spelling and grammar errors and I'm also sorry!

"I need a medic over here!"

"Someone help me get him to the infirmary!"

The chaos around Spot is suffocating. He squeezes his eyes shut long enough to calm his breathing and push away any  _ bad _ memories. His fellow demigods rush around him, gathering weapons and finding the injured.

Spot nearly jumps out of his skin when a hand lands on his shoulder.

"Relax, it's just me." Spot relaxes at the sight of his longtime best friend, Hotshot. The two have been through everything together, and that means  _ everything _ . Spot won't lie and say most of their memories are good. Many are sad and painful now, but Spot wouldn't trade his best friend for anything. 

“Any clue what that was?” Spot starts stalking through the crowd of campers with Hotshot right beside him.

“No. I tried to shadow travel across the border a few times, but I could only ever hide for a few seconds before something sensed me.” Hotshot rushes through a breath, making Spot’s eyebrows furrow. He glances over to see his friend paler than normal and his shoulders heaving like he’s gasping for air.

“Alright, you can either go to your cabin and take a nap or take one in the infirmary so you can heal.” Spot stops and crosses his arms. Hotshot turns to him and opens his mouth to protest, but Spot raises an eyebrow. “Do it, or I’m telling Ike.”

“Dick move, Conlon.” Hotshot mutters, but hesitantly turns and trudges towards the cabins. Despite his reputation amongst the campers and half of their friend group, Hotshot has two known soft spots. One obviously for Spot, the two have grown up together and have been through more than either would wish on anyone. The second soft spot has been claimed by Ike. The boy is irresponsible beyond all reason and the things he is responsible for tend to cause enough trouble. The one thing Ike constantly takes seriously is his friends and family, including the health and safety of his family. Ever since the unpredictable day when Hotshot agreed to try dating Ike, one of Ike’s biggest concerns in his world of pranks and games has been Hotshot’s safety. Spot swears that the most entertaining thing is watching Ike get angry at Hotshot for not taking care of himself. Of course, this seems to be a common trait among the boys of the Hermes’ Cabin.

“Hey, are you okay? No scratches or bruises? Nothing’s broken, because I will  _ personally  _ hunt down the monster that hurt you and-”

“Tony, breathe. I’m fine. No scratches or nothin’.” Spot suppresses a smile as Race’s body visibly relaxes. Like Ike, Race tends to spend his time pranking unless any friend, family, or slight acquaintance is at risk of anything. Spot would go as far to say Race is worse than Ike.

“Good. Don’t need that face of your gettin’ even more messed up.” Race gently shoves Spot’s shoulder, making the slightly older by three months boy roll his eyes. He can’t complain. It’s easier for Spot and Race to function like this. Jokes, banter, and careful touches in public. If ever they get a chance, both are much more affectionate in private. Race likes to argue that Spot is a huge teddy bear, something Spot denies repeatedly.

“We better get to the Big House. Medda’s gonna want to get the counselors together to figure out what that was. You leave the twins in charge?” Spot starts rushing up away from the hill with Race right behind him.

“Yep. I’d like to know what kept me from my breakfast.” Race scowls at the ground, making Spot smile fondly although he’s quick to hide it.

***

Leaning against a previously airborne boulder isn’t exactly Finch’s idea of relaxing, but he’ll take it.

His relief is short lived when he hears quick thuds coming towards him. He’s quick to straighten up and his body tenses, but he relaxes when he sees Albert coming to a stop a few feet from him, his cheeks flushed pink and his red hair settling on his head. Finch sighs and reaches up to rub his forehead to hopefully relieve some of the guaranteed stress lines.

“Are you alright?” Albert asks, not moving any closer. As much as he wants to just reach out and hold Finch like he’s wanted to do so many times before, he knows from experience to just wait. Finch might want a hug, he might not, but either way, Albert must wait. He knows this.

“I’m fine. Found David and took care of the Oracle’s Cave. We need to figure out what that was. It was definitely an enemy, but it could’ve been magic or just something hammering the border or-”

“Finch.” Albert’s voice is soft. Finch takes a deep breath and swallows. He knows he was starting to ramble, so he breathes and tries to clear his mind. Albert takes a small step closer and angles his head to try and make eye contact with Finch. “Are you alright?”

Finch reassesses the question and purses his lips. He forces a smile and nods before gingerly reaching his hand out. Albert meets him in the middle and laces their fingers together.

“Alright, let’s get to the Big House to solve this problem, okay?”

***

“David!” The boy hardly has a second before he’s nearly tackled by two bodies. As he steadies himself, he realizes Sarah and Les are squeezing him. He quickly hugs them back before the three pull apart.

“Where’s Mush? Did you guys check on him? Are you two okay?” David shoots off question after question, his eyebrows pinched together in concern.

“We’re fine. Mush is still in the infirmary.” Les pulls at the hem of his shirt and keeps looking around like he’s waiting for the tremors to start again.

“What about you, are you alright?” Sarah’s hand settles on David’s shoulder. She gives him a look that tells David to answer honestly or face Sarah’s undoubtable anger.

“Yeah, I’m okay. I was with Jack and the two Oracles trying to keep the cave of imploding.” David offers his siblings a smile. Sarah seems pleased enough with the answer. David takes a minute to look around only to see Jack hurrying towards the Big House with Katherine and Henry close behind. He notices Spot and Race going in the same direction, Albert and Finch not too far behind. “What are they doing?”

“I’m not sure, I just know that Henry said something about having a counselor meeting.” Sarah sighs. She plants her hands on her hips and glances around, shaking her head. “All this and the sun’s barely above the treeline.”

“Hey, we need help moving debris!” A camper yells. Sarah nods before running off after the voice. David hesitantly follows, Les close behind.

***

“Why did they gather us all at the campfire?” Mush leans closer to Sarah to whisper the question. After spending all morning in the infirmary while the counselors had their emergency meeting, Mush was tired out. The head camper at the infirmary let Mush leave to attend the gathering long enough to figure out what happened.

“I think they’re going to tell us what actually happened.” Sarah bounces her leg and keeps glancing across the crowd anxiously.

Not even seconds later, the amphitheater is silent. Medda walks to the center with the camp counselors close behind. All of them have neutral expressions, but some lean closer to neutral frowns than anything. 

“As you all know, the camp was attacked this morning. First, I’d like to say how proud I am of all of you. We’ll work more on emergency maneuvers, but overall, your reaction time and effectiveness was impressive.” Medda offers a reassuring smile, but she can quite obviously see that every set of eyes on her just wants to know what caused the tremors and attack. She sighs hesitantly before speaking again. “We aren’t sure exactly what caused the attack. The monsters were clearly a distraction from something bigger that was trying to break through the barrier underground. For now, we’ll practice more drills and go through camp everyday. If this happens again, we will fight to completely stop it and find the cause.

“For now, everyone can head to breakfast. I know you all must be hungry.” Medda offers a warm smile now. The amphitheater slowly clears with silent chatter. The Jacobs siblings wait patiently until they spot all of their new friends waiting at the center of the amphitheater. The four hurry down where everyone stands in a tight circle.

“You think it was  _ him _ ?” Romeo asks, all but clinging to Specs’ side.

“We don’t mention _him_ , there’s no way _he_ could’ve done this. He’s in the Fields of Punishment, Hotshot personally escorted him.” Spot spits . Race makes the cautious decision to stand close enough to Spot to lace their fingers together. Neither pulls away, Spot even holds Race tighter.

“Either way, we have to figure it out.” Katherine shakes her head, her lips pressed in a tight line.

“Right, like Medda’s gonna let us start investigating.” Kid Blink stands with his arms crossed next to Elmer. The siblings hadn’t noticed him since he’s never joined the group before. Of course, he is the Hephaestus Cabin Counselor, which might have something to do with it.

“Like she won’t expect us to do it anyway.” Jack rolls his eyes. “Alright, let’s get somethin’ to eat before doin’ any snoopin’.”

“I think that’s the first time he’s ever admitted that he snoops around.” Crutchie suddenly perks up, making everyone crack a smile or start laughing. The mood instantly lightens before the group begins their trek to the dining pavilion.

Whatever that attack was, the camp can’t help but hope it was an impulsive attempt by a small group of monsters.

Then again, when has that ever been the case with this camp?


	11. Normal is a Joke

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The campers get back to their regular camp activities, for the most part. Some boys end up with a bit of a mix up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, it's been forever since I've even existed.
> 
> I'm in the middle of exams right now, but I decided to get a slight filler chapter handing the spotlight to Mush and Les!!!

"Davey, c'mon, I hardly get to hang out with you anymore!" Les pouts as David scowls at his breakfast. Since when did Les call him Davey?

"Les, I see you everyday and we have archery together." David winces at the mention of the activity. Sure, he's pretty good at a lot of things for the most part. Other things, well, not so much. Archery is among those other things.

"You know that's not what I mean." Les mutters and leans his chin on his hand, pout still very present. Davey frowns at he brother because Les has never acted this way ever.

Truth be told, Les is lonely. Yeah, he has some friends at camp, but he's used to seeing his siblings everyday and talking to them normally. Ever since getting to camp where they're separated and Les only has Oscar to look to once everyone is sent to their cabins to sleep for the night, Les has felt abandoned by his siblings.

"Don't worry, mi compadre." Romeo is suddenly sitting next to Les with his arm over Les' shoulders in a weird, friendly manner that matches his overall persona. "We got most of our camp activities together so you and me are gonna make plans to completely out prank Race and his Hermes boys."

"Doesn't Albert take part in the pranking?" Les perks up, but his face still shows how upset he's feeling. David purses his lips. He's been praised by teachers and his parents before for always knowing the answer to problems. Unfortunately, this isn't as easy for him to figure out as his school work.

"All the more reason to start scheming." Romeo claps his hands on Les' shoulders before Les grins. Both of them stand and are running off to do who knows what before David can stop them. He sighs, still not really knowing what he was supposed to do.

Has he really been ignoring Les? He thought they were all doing just fine. Maybe it was their new friends and half godly siblings. Has he not noticed Les feeling left out?

***

"Okay, so I was thinkin' we could test some of these pranks. Make sure they're worthy of the Hermes fellas." Romeo runs his hands together as him and Les hide behind a chest near the archery range. It's huge, big enough to conceal both boys from their target. Well, Romeo's target. Les isn't to keen to the idea of them pranking his all but hostile half brother.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Les fidgets anxiously with the hem of his shirt. He hasn't told anyone about Oscar being cold towards him. He didn't even really like thinking about it. Plus, his siblings probably had their own stuff to deal with. They didn't need Les' issues when they probably have their own, especially after the attack this morning.

"Trust me little dude, Ozzy boy needs to spice up his room and gloom once in a while." Romeo smirks as he peeks over the chest. Les follows, poking his head up enough to see the line of targets with campers opposite of them, all in various stages of shooting arrows. The two boys watch as Oscar nocks an arrow and glares at his target. Romeo bites his bottom lip as he fights to hold down a laugh.

"I don't think this was a good idea." Les mumbles, wanting nothing more than to hide inside his orange camp shirt. Sure, it's not a bad prank, but from what little interactions he's had with Oscar the kid get angry easily…

_ Les had just got done showering after his second day at camp. He'd just said goodnight to his new friends and his siblings before rushing off towards his cabin. Well, the cabin he shares with Oscar. _

_ Les hurries inside to where one of the lamps is on, it's the one next to his bed. He always turns it on when he gets his shower stuff. He sleeps on the bottom bunk of the bunk to the left of the door. Oscar sleeps in the bunk to the right of the door. His lamp is never on. _

_ Les is sitting on his bed, stuffing his dirty clothes under his bunk until he gets chastised by David at some point into washing them, when the cabin door opens and Oscar enters silently. Les bites his tongue as he thinks for a second. _

_ He hasn't talked much to Oscar, at all really. Katherine did all the talking when she introduced them. Oscar didn't seem too happy to have a new roommate, much less half brother. _

_ "Hello." Les bursts before he can think to stop himself. He jumps when Oscar jumps and whips around, his eyes wide in what looks like shock until he huffs and his eyes narrow. _

_ "Don't do that." Oscar snaps and turns to go to his bunk. His hair is damp and he's wearing a pair of dark blue pajama pants and a black t-shirt. It makes Les feel uncomfortable in his Star Wars pajama set. _

_ "I'm sorry." Les apologizes and offer Oscar and smile. The older boy only briefly looks at Les and scoffs quietly as he folds his clothes from the day and climbs into his bed. Les slips under the covers of his bed and cuddles down into his pillow after turning his lamp off. "How was your day?" _

_ "Listen kid, I'm tryin' to sleep. I suggest you shut it and do the same." Oscar snaps again and it goes quiet. Les' face burns with embarrassment and sadness as he pulls his blankets tighter around him. He pushes down some tears slowly working up and hides his face in his pillow. _

"What in Hades!" Oscar yelling snaps Les out of the not so nice memory. His eyes widen when he sees Oscar frantically trying to wipe whipped cream from his face, a pie tin on the ground in front of him. Les doesn't know how Romeo got the tin or the whipped cream or the tools they needed to rig the trap and get the accuracy, well, accurate, but they did it. And Oscar was the proof of that.

"Oh yeah, we'll definitely get Race and the others." Romeo whispers, stifling his laugh as Oscar storms around looking for the culprit as other campers struggle to hide their own laughter.

"Woah, looks like someone's having a bad day." Race suddenly appears with a huge smirk on his face. It takes Oscar all of two seconds to focus on Race, Oscar's face still covered in whipped cream somehow still shaping into a furious sneer.

" _ HIGGINS! _ " Race's eyes widen and he takes off sprinting, Oscar right on his tail. Romeo starts howling in laughter as Race and Oscar disappear, falling onto his back and clutching his stomach. Les tries to fight off a smile, but he can't help it. It's not necessarily right, but it's pretty funny.

So he lets himself laugh as he hears Oscar yelling curses in Greek at Race and Race yell some right back.

***

"Mush, you are way too good at this kinda stuff." Kenny sighs. After the morning they had, the two can finally breathe. Most Apollo kids were able to take off and do their camo activities for the day. Mush and Kenny were some of the few who stuck behind to monitor the few campers with worse injuries from the attack that morning. Just a few minor concussions and sprains, one fractured ankle, and some dislocated limbs. Nothing horribly bad.

"I spent a lot of time taking care of my siblings to hide injuries from our parents." Mush blushes. He adopted the terms better over the years of knowing the Jacobs family. Sometimes it feels weird, and it especially has weird moments as he gets used to his many half siblings, but it's not too bad.

"Jeez, how much trouble did you guys get into?" Kenny shakes his head and it's quiet before he sighs again. "Alright, I'm gonna go check on some of our patients again. I'm pretty sure if given the chance, Buttons would take his cast apart and make some strange contraption."

Mush nods at Kenny as he leaves before he turns back to organizing the supply cabinet. Well, one of them. Along with being partially ADHD and dyslexic, things apparently common in demigods, Mush has horrible OCD. As soon as he saw how unorganized and confusing the supply cabinets were, he made an oath that he would organize them if it killed him. It was time consuming and infuriating at times, but it was already worth it if the the now organized bandages were any indication.

Mush had just finished putting the band-aids in order from the large, share one to the tiny circle ones when there are suddenly two hands on his shoulders. He jumps and whips his head over his shoulder to see Louis, also known as Kid Blink standing behind him with an amused grin on his face. Mush's face immediately flushes and he almost drops the bandage tape in his hands into his lap.

"Blink, hi." Mush tries not to wince at the mechanical response.

"Hey. I was just stopping by to make sure Buttons was listening to Doctor's orders 'nd I thought I'd say hi." Blink shrugs, a lopsided smile now planted in his face. Mush gapes for a second, only just now noticing the awkward twist in his neck as he looks over his shoulder.

"Um, hi." He smile, although he's quick to remember just how dumb he sounds.

"Buttons, you fractured a bone, keep that cast on!" Kenny yelling makes Blink huff and roll his eyes, although there's a smile on his face that makes Mush bkush even harder, somehow.

"I gotta go check on that. I'll see you later, Mush." Blink waves and hurries off, probably to find a way to keep Kenny from strapping Buttons down so he doesn't mess with his cast.

"Oh my gods." Mush groans and softly hits his head off one of the shelves of the cabinet. Was talking to boys always this hard?

Why couldn't anything just be normal, or at least easy?

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed despite the errors!


End file.
